CURRENT ISSUE
October 2014
Features
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Escape to Alcatraz
China's most controversial artist breaks into America's most notorious prison with a historic new show
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Swimming Upstream
Can human ingenuity help salmon navigate the dangers of one of their last strongholds in the Northwest?
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Air Waves
The net neutrality debate has been burning up the Internet, but everyone seems to have forgotten the first air war—radio
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Hall of Spies
Inside the CIA is a museum filled with relics from half a century of cloak-and-dagger exploits. Care for a private tour?
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Cold Comfort
The remote Cold War radar system set up to ring an alarm against nuclear attack may have new responsibilities due to climate change
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The Origin Story of Wonder Woman
The history of the comic-book superhero's creation seven decades ago has been hidden away—until now
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Nuclear Option
What's really inside the secret satchel that accompanies the president everywhere?
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True Colors
Robert Webster was a slave and then a savior to his former owner. A newly revealed portrait captures the complexities of a remarkable life
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Dead Letters
The packets of food Rudolf Hess saved as proof his British captors were poisoning him now sit in a Maryland basement
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Eliot Ness vs. J. Edgar Hoover
Newly released files trace the private war between America's two most famous crime fighters
Departments
Alternate History
America's first cartographer was a rogue talent who didn't hesitate to put politics on the map
Did Marco Polo Discover America?
Maps attributed to the 13th-century traveler sketch what looks like the coast of Alaska
Face Plant
A massive new portrait in soil and sand will cover five acres on the National Mall
The Legacy of Hip-Hop Producer J Dilla Will Be Recognized
The late producer's mother announced she is donating his synthesizer and beat machine to the African American History Museum