Two police cars, a cruiser and a transport van, were on fire at the intersection of Baltimore’s North and Pennsylvania Avenues. Dozens of people poured out of a CVS on the same corner, arms full of toilet paper and baby wipes. An older man in a pageboy cap put his hand on my shoulder and walked with me for a few steps. “You’ve gotta get out of here,” he said. “These people are crazy. They want to hurt people who look like you.”

At some point in your life you will be asked to order pizza for a group. When that time comes, don’t be afraid. All the information you need to determine how many pies to order can be found in the pizza itself. Because what is a pizza if not a tool for learning fractions?

Amid a nationwide push to restrict access to government anti-poverty programs, we are bringing you true stories from people who receive public assistance. Tight budgets, enraging bureaucracy, and real hunger, below.

Last week, the federal courts chalked up another victory for the defense of American freedom—or, rather, for the American Freedom Defense Initiative. Judge John Koeltl of the Southern District of New York ruled that the MTA must display an advertisement known as “the ‘Killing Jews’ advertisement.”

Our depleted, dried-up culture craves teen juice for nourishment. We’ve assumed that because we are tired and aching, we can absorb teenage youth-spirit through social media osmosis, a hot stem cell injection for our whole existence. But what if teens suck just as much as we do?

Damn, Texas A&M University at Galveston management professor Irwin Horwitz—you’re a wild motherfucker.

Bruce Jenner came out as a woman Friday night, confirming months of gender identity speculation.

Late last year, I deleted my Twitter account after deciding that it did not work well with my high-strung and overly anxious personality. Also, the service was basically a stream of toxic refuse. No shade to anyone who uses it (everyone), I just found I was using it too much and that I’d fallen down the rabbit hole of cliquey-microconcerns one too many times to make it worth it.

As Americans, we are all partisans for the oddities and specialties of our own local cuisines. You can get a bagel anywhere, but only in New York are they great; you’re lucky to find a Goo Goo Cluster at all outside of Nashville. But the good stuff is boring—what makes your stomach turn?

Ben Affleck really didn’t want people to know that one of his distant ancestors owned slaves—going so far as to lobby celebrity genealogy TV show Finding Your Roots to suppress the segment in which that ancestor is discussed. But we got our hands on a copy of the script—and now you can read the mild interview that terrified the actor.

Remember Elián González? The six-year-old boy who was apprehended from a relative’s home in Miami in 2000 and sent back to Cuba by American federal agents? Do you recall what he looks like? Well it doesn’t matter, because he’s hot now.

In a recent New York Times column, Mark Bittman compared consumers to lab animals subjected to an experiment. “Stop Making Us Guinea Pigs,” the headline of his piece lamented. The experiment? Genetically modified organisms lurking in the nation’s food, filling our families’ bellies, and maybe doing something to us, or maybe not. Bittman’s solution? Labeling all foods containing GMOs, presumably so consumers can avoid them.

More than one in four Americans—many of them employed—receive some type of government anti-poverty assistance. We are bringing you their stories. Today, seven different experiences from people in seven different states.

The huge, hemorrhaging Sony leak went down late last year, but even now we’re still discovering new tidbits. Since it’s now very easy and very safe to peruse the archives on your own, let’s see what we can can find together.

Do your charitable donations suck? Are you failing to save lives due to greed you don't even realize you have? Do poor people have the right to take all of our stuff? One of the world's most famous philosophers talked about these very topics with us.

Back in December, Matt Yglesias made a joke on Twitter. He posted a photo of a Starbucks cup with the text "Starbucks lovers tell you I'm insane," a reference to a commonly misheard lyric in Taylor Swift's "Blank Space." The tweet got five retweets and 24 favorites, and everyone moved on. Except me. I have been stuck on Matt Yglesias's thumb.

It was only a few months ago that one of Earth's most powerful corporations was laid low by a band of still-unidentified hackers. We pulled out the most interesting revelations, but maybe Sony's ridiculous legal threats spooked you away from sifting for yourself—now you can.

The increasing legality of marijuana means one thing: Pot is very easy to buy and no longer cool to do. To fill this thrill-void, our country's idiots are turning to insane substances like krokodil, bath salts, jenkum, meow meow and now flakka, transforming into psychotic murder machines in the process. Or so local news would have us believe.

Teens making their entry into (or continuing their nascent exploration of) the world of pill-popping after having their wisdom teeth extracted are collectively a gift that keeps on giving. And what they are giving exactly are self-taken videos of them babbling, crying, singing, pissing off their parents, fucking with office equipment, and singing Ed Sheeran.