The Clue of the Blue Bottle

Elon Musk has claimed that AI is humanity’s “biggest existential threat.” Paradoxically, Musk is also working to create artificial intelligence. Why? Jill Lepore tours through a century of imagined robot rebellions, and argues that these stories are never only about robots. So wh ...  Show more

In 2022, Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, and renamed it X. When asked why he wanted to own the social media network, Musk talked a lot about something he called the “woke mind virus.” Where does the idea of a mind virus come from? Jill Lepore looks to Cold War science f ...  Show more

On the morning of October 30th, 1928, Elfrieda Knaak was found with her head, hands, and feet burned down to the bone in the furnace room of the Lake Bluff, Illinois police station. She survived her ordeal with fire, but not for long. Before her death she claimed she did it he ...

Since 1965, there's been an unsolved murder in Houston, Texas. The main suspect, Charles Rogers, managed to disappear and police were never able to find him. The case is still considered open. In 1997, a couple of forensic accountants named Hugh and Martha Gardenier decided to lo ...  Show more

On a brutally cold winter night in 1984, a young woman is found viciously murdered on the side of a rural Wisconsin driveway. The victim, Traci Hammerberg, had been out with friends for a night of drinking and partying. What happened? Detectives initially have plenty of suspects, ...  Show more

On October 5th, 1980, Detective John Williams responds to the scene where a young woman has been found, raped, murdered, and discarded on the side of a remote Nevada road. Investigators have no clue to her identity. With no leads and very little evidence, the case goes cold for 3 ...  Show more