Miscellaneous
Oh Africa
Simple rules in writing about the dark Zulu. Binyavanga Wainaina | April 2006 issue Always use the word “dark” or “safari” in your title. Subtitles may include the words “Zanzibar,” “Masai,” “Zulu,” “Zambezi,” “Congo,” “Nile,” “big,” “sky,” “shadow,” Read More...
Talkin' 'bout my generation
Good news! Soaring energy costs could get even worse, spurring a new era in which people make clean power for themselves. Blaine Greteman | September 2008 issue In the 1920s, millions of rural Americans got their energy the same way they got their butter—they made it themselves. Off-grid when Read More...
Carrying the torch
How to keep socially responsible investments on the right track. Amy Domini | September 2008 issue Illustration: Neil Webb As I write this column, the Olympic torch is making its way around the world, heading to the Olympic Games in Beijing. For the runners who carry the torch, and many Read More...
Chasing the Cheetahs
More than 40 percent of Africa’s people are under 15—and they’re getting ready to change the way the continent works. Vijay Mahajan | September 2008 issue In the centre of Harare, Zimbabwe, a two-story retail shop is filled to the brim with the hopes of African parents for their children. Read More...
Interview with Vijay Mahajan
Ode checks in with Vijay Mahajan, author of Africa Rising: How 900 Million African Consumers Offer More Than You Think, of which you’ll find an exclusive excerpt in the October 2008 issue. Brigid Marshall | September 2008 issue Why did you want to write about Africa’s consumer market? “When Read More...
The six million dollar men
Silicon Valley plans to clean up by investing in green energy. Tijn Touber | September 2008 issue "If the best way to create the future is to invent it, we say the second-best way is to finance it." John Doerr is only half joking. He's one of the most influential venture capitalists in Silicon Read More...
Power couple
Rebekah and Stephen Hren took a 75-year-old house and turned it into a model zero-carbon home. Here’s how. Diane Daniel | September 2008 issue Rebekah Hren stands over the small desk in the bedroom she and her husband Stephen share in Durham, North Carolina, and powers up their Mac mini. She Read More...
At our fingertips
Want to make the most of preventive medicine? Supplement your annual physical with the ancient Chinese technique of pulse diagnosis. Tijn Touber | September 2008 issue "Good news. We didn’t find anything." The doctor delivered her verdict from the doorway of my room in the emergency ward of a Read More...
I'm feeling your pain - really
Tracing the neurological roots of empathy. David Servan-Schreiber | September 2008 issue Deborah paces the floor in the hospital waiting room. Her daughter is undergoing her third session of chemotherapy. Deborah imagines once again how the freezing poison is spreading through Catherine’s veins. Read More...
What a long, strange trip its been
Frank Ferrante allowed a film crew to record his transformation from obese drug addict to clean, serene grad student. Now he’s coming soon to a theatre near you. Josey Duncan | September 2008 issue One cold, rainy evening in 2006, Frank Ferrante wandered into Café Gratitude in San Francisco Read More...