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Colin Dickey

Colin Dickey is the author of The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters & Our Obsession with the Unexplained and Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places.

All Articles
May 3, 2023
Critical Mass
Are Germs the Main Characters in History?
Outbreaks of disease may have had a greater effect on the course of events than the actions and plans of humans.
March 31, 2023
Critical Mass
Wolfish Is a Deep Dive Into Fear
Erica Berry’s book dissects the cultural fascination with wolves as symbols of everything that terrifies us.
September 15, 2022
Critical Mass
The Axios Guide to Writing Well Is Neither Smart Nor Brief
How much complexity is lost in a sentence no longer than six words?
March 21, 2022
Critical Mass
The Weight of Family History
It’s never been easier to piece together a family tree. But what if it brings uncomfortable facts to light?
July 21, 2021
Critical Mass
Edgar Allan Poe, Crank Scientist
The great discoveries of the age captivated his imagination. He almost always misunderstood them.
June 4, 2021
Critical Mass
Malcolm Gladwell’s Fantasy of War From the Air
“The Bomber Mafia” enthuses about precision tactics said to spare civilian lives. Except they didn’t.
August 7, 2020
Critical Mass
The Helpless Outrage of the Anti-Trump Book
The Trump era has birthed a distinct new genre of political writing: irate, forgettable, and strangely complacent.
July 11, 2019
The Secrets in Greenland’s Ice
From exploration to Cold War militarization, how the Arctic became the focus of the climate crisis.
April 24, 2019
America’s Messiah Complex
How cults feed on American ideals, aspirations, and hypocrisies.
April 11, 2019
Why Pet Sematary Refuses to Die
Stephen King’s story focuses on our culture’s obsessive denial of grief.
January 10, 2019
A Series of Selves
How Virginia Woolf’s diaries chronicle the push and pull of her private and public lives.
November 14, 2018
Magazine
Grand Old Paranoia
How Republican conspiracy theories have warped Washington
August 28, 2018
A Pioneer of Paranoia
How William Cooper envisioned a web entangling global capitalism, the government, and UFOs, and incubated the politics of conspiracy
March 22, 2018
Why Dictators Write
What Saddam Hussein’s romance novels and Kim Jong-il’s film criticism reveal about authoritarianism.
February 7, 2018
What Winchester Gets Wrong About an American Landmark
The new movie builds on the myth that when Sarah Winchester built her Mystery House, she was overwhelmed by grief.
September 21, 2017
When Squid Ruled the Earth
Prehistoric squid were far more numerous, and their reign lasted longer, than the dinosaurs. Why do we know so little about them?
August 7, 2017
A Brief History of Invisible Waves
How the discovery of X-rays and infrared made us doubt the senses.
June 8, 2017
Magazine
The New Paranoia
Democrats have always prided themselves on being a voice of political sanity. So why has Trump's election turned the left into a breeding ground for conspiracy theories?
April 26, 2017
Why the United States Government Embraced the Occult
A new book chronicles decades of extravagant attempts to weaponize psychic powers.
February 28, 2017
The Case for Becoming a Hermit
Why we expect special wisdom from the people who reject society.

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