Phileas Fogg had nothing on pioneering female journalists Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland

Is the United States past its prime?

Trying to get honest about America’s garbage problem

Remembering Paul Fussell

Gary Weiss explores Objectivism’s influence on contemporary politics

Robert Lane Greene on why language is always, and never, in decline

A look back at the illustrated magazines of the 1840s

Inside Slate’s efforts to crowdsource good ideas

Celebrity journalism matters, sometimes