Miles Klee is a reporter for the Daily Dot and the author of the novel Ivyland, a finalist in the 2013 Tournament of Books, and the short-story collection True/False. His fiction, satire, and essays have been featured by Vanity Fair, The Awl, the New York Observer, Salon, The Village Voice, The Millions, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and others.
Roundtable
During the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s, “Soapy” Smith made a fortune taking advantage of would-be millionaires. A hundred years later, the aspirational rich are still the easiest targets. More
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Once a symbol of all that was cheerful and good, the many faces of Santa have not always shared his loving spirit. More
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Every era has its own time-truthers, those who insist that through careful manipulation, minutes and seconds as we know them can be altered or even erased. More
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When homegrown radicals decide to take what they often call revolutionary action—with a bomb, a gun, or worse—their visions often have little to do with the reform of government, and everything to do with a maniacal will to shape another world. More
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Is it any wonder that we secretly view laughter as black magic, unpredictably hazardous? Only when you hear the common evolutionary explanation for laughter: it serves to express relief. Not just from the urge to laugh, but from some awful danger, a cosmic threat imagined by and for the self. More
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How one sets out to conquer death has everything to do with how one defines it. “We don’t get old, we rust from oxygen,” explains Dr. Harry B. Demopoulos, a researcher (and former actor) who studies ischemic injury, looking for methods to mitigate cellular damage caused by a restriction in blood supply. A Spaniard of the sixteenth century might put more stock in the Fountain of Youth, that mythic baptismal curative. More
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On the high seas, the doldrums are a place where ships linger, unable to push forward through the too-calm sea. In literature, doldrums become synonymous with a particular kind of inert malaise. More
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It’s long been suggested that animals (dogs, cats, and even dolphins) have connections to other worlds. A history of animal sixth senses, from ancient Egypt to modern-day Alaska. More
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Total freak-out or total bliss? For centuries, LSD and its derivatives have been dreamland for the initiated, and a nightmare for those caught unawares. More
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A BBC comedy series explores the gaffe-prone world of professional politics, onscreen and off. More
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How the creator of literature’s most logical detective became utterly seduced by the world of magic. More