"Pidgin English and art have always been intricately linked in Nigeria. Frowned upon in schools as a broken language, it may be the most widely spoken language not yet with a formal orthography, although several have been developed..."

Check out this week's Long Read, "A Long Dead End" by Sinar Alvarado from our Amazon guide here on our Substack!

“In the future, glaciers will be an alien phenomenon, rare as a Bengal tiger. Having lived in the time of the white giants will become swaddled in a fairytale glow, like having stroked a dragon or handled the eggs of the great auk."

From adult films to OnlyFans, sex work is prolific around the world. This week's Field Guide looks at the power and struggles of sex workers from Vietnam to Iran to the Netherlands. Check it out on our Substack.

Head to our Substack to read this week's Long Read, "Day of Rest" by Amy Yedida Wolfe from our US National Parks guide!

Check out Maxine Gordon and Ethelene Whitmire's reflections on the Black American Jazz musicians who made Copenhagen their home in the 1960s and 1970s in this week's Vignette here on Substack!

Check out this week's Fiction newsletter here on our Substack!

Check out this week's Long Read, "Prisoners of War" by Nataliya Gumenyuk from our Ukraine guide.

“Dear revisionists, Mandela will never, ever be your minstrel. Over the next few days, you will try so, so hard to make him something he was not, and you will fail. You will try to smooth him, to sandblast him, to take away his Malcolm X. You will try to hide his anger from view.”

Check out Eimar Ryan's essay, "Good Sports" from our Ireland guide in this week's Long Read here on our Substack.

School is back in session! ⁠ Since summer break has come to a close and students around the world transition back to the classroom, we’re revisiting Melissa Ann Pinney’s photo essay, “School Days” from our Chicago guide in our recent Close Up newsletter. Check it out on our Substack!

Check out our new Fiction newsletter here on our Substack!

Check out this week's Long Read, “Chicago’s Other Mob Story” by Hillel Levin from our Chicago guide!

Check out Sean Jacob’s essay, “Olympique de Marseille” from our Mediterranean guide on the football team that is the face of modern France in this week's Long Read here on our Substack.

In an increasingly interconnected yet often isolating world, the value of real friendship continues to grow. The United Nations recognizes July 30 as International Friendship Day while some countries such as the US and India dedicate the first Sunday of August to celebrating friendships.

Check out this week's Long Read!

The photographer, Gohar Dashti, is known for operating in a space between reality and fantasy. At first glance, the scenes seem mundane, but a close look will show the tail of a giant mythical beast lurking.

In honor of Juneteenth, we're sharing reflections and history that show how this holiday came to be and continues to evolve—both in the US and beyond in this week's Field Guide.

The Orleans Parish Justice Center in New Orleans has been in the news for weeks due to the daunting prison break of 10 inmates. The press has been riveted by the story of inmates removing a toilet and sink from a cell and cutting steel bars in order to escape through a rectangular hole in the wall.

Eleven years later, the speech stands as a striking example of courage in speaking truth to power, and the unpredictable paths of progress.

Around the world, many countries honor their national flag in June. June 14 is Flag Day in the US, a celebration of the adoption of the nation’s red, white and blue banner in 1777.

Over the last month, we have published new works from Syria, Nigeria, Ukraine, South Africa and New Orleans. As the US seeks to disengage from the rest of the world, we are determined to make space that explores new perspectives and embraces cultural complexities.⁠

Today we’re publishing Niq Mhlongo’s essay, “What Was Lost” about Johannesburg, in all its messiness, all its loveliness and all its history.

Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week in the United States, highlighting the importance of educators nationwide and the vital role teachers play in shaping future generations.

When Pope Leo XIV ascended to his new position last week, numerous battling factions quickly claimed him. Among them, were two powerful longstanding rivals: the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox.

In the wake of the fist Trump presidential term, Pam Houston wrote an intrepid piece of fiction for Stranger’s Guide exploring the power—and powerlessness—of an individual pitted against the violent force of nature and politics.

In 2019, the Hard Rock Hotel construction site in New Orleans collapsed, killing three workers and injuring many more. But for one undocumented worker who survived, the aftermath of the situation brought on more challenges than injuries.

While professional leagues dominate headlines, informal sports around the world continue to thrive. In Nigeria, one beloved example is “monkey post,” a local, stripped-down form of soccer often played throughout neighborhoods wherever space is made.

“Sisterhood of Skateboarders,” by Johannesburg’s very own, Karabo Mooki, is a photo series that explores the lives of Spectrum, the all-women skateboarding crew who are roaming the streets of Johannesburg with confidence.

We are tremendously proud to announce that Stranger’s Guide’s Associate Photography Editor Kike Arnal has won a National Magazine Award for his powerful photo essay “The New Aztecs.”

In this week's Long Read, our publisher, Abby Rapoport remembers two stalwarts of Texas journalism who recently passed away. John Thornton, founder of the Texas Tribune and Carlton Carl, former CEO and board member of the Texas Observer.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. In her award-winning novel, The Mountains Sing, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai wrote: "Looking back, I wish I had understood more fully the significance of this day..."

Spring is officially in full bloom in the Northern Hemisphere! As we continue to defrost and dust off the languor of winter, we’re looking at springtime celebrations and traditions around the world.

For someone who specializes in societal collapse, Daniel Hoyer is surprisingly jolly. Hoyer is a computational historian and complexity scientist. For more than 10 years, he’s worked at the Seshat Databank, where he serves as Senior Research Associate and Managing Director.

This month our fiction newsletter is excerpted from Lily Hyde's extraordinary forthcoming book which is not yet titled. The book looks at Crimea after its annexation by Russia and is based on Hyde’s extensive research interviewing Crimean Tatars, an indigenous, largely Muslim Turkic group.

"In our special brotherhood of that summer of ’72 in London, the absence of words – in Arabic, in Persian, in distant English – did not require our names." Salar Abdoh for @codastory.bsky.social and @strangersguide.bsky.social:

As springtime approaches in the Northern Hemisphere, we're looking forward to getting back out on the road and rolling the windows down for some warm weather adventures. Join us as we travel by car and by foot from Scandinavia to Nepal, South Africa and Germany in this week’s Field Guide below.

"It’s an age-old California story: lost souls, sex cults and house flipping." This week's Weekly Long Read features Colin Dickey's essay, "Peace, Love and Messiah-making" from our California guide. Give it a read at the link below!

Today we launched our special series on the experiences of soldiers on the front line of the war in Ukraine. The first post of our series is a conversation between a Ukrainian translator and a prisoner of war on Ukraine’s front lines.

Over the last several weeks, Stranger’s Guide has been on the move. In this week's Passport, we share all the things we've been up to from the upcoming launch of our new Ukraine series to updates from our co-founders.

For centuries, literature has reflected and shaped how societies view women—and in Vietnam, as is the case in many countries around the world, these portrayals have shifted dramatically across time.

As Black History Month in the US and Canada comes to a close, we're celebrating Black storytelling around the world.

We could not be more thrilled to announces that the photo essay, “The New Aztecs,” by Kike Arnal has been nominated for a National Magazine Award for Best Service and Lifestyle Photography.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Today in the United States, gifts of chocolates are given pride of place. So, in honor of the day, we’re indulging in some of the history behind this favorite treat in today’s Vignette. Check it out here: strangersguide.substack.com/p/where-grea...

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, this week’s Field Guide is all about lovers—around the world and throughout history.

February is the month of love! From South Korea’s symbolic wedding geese and other customs to Vietnam’s bustling love markets to the extravagant weddings in Lagos—today’s Vignette explores these unique wedding traditions and how love is celebrated across cultures. Read all about them below.

Staging the perfect wedding photo is serious business. But in Vietnam it has taken on an extraordinary twist. In his photo essay, “Wedding Farms,” Travis Hodges—a photographer based in Southeast Asia—offers a behind the scenes look at the fashionable photo shoots ahead of many Vietnamese weddings.

Poured over meals, rich with nutrients and traded across empires, olive oil has been a staple of kitchens, economies and cultures for millennia. But where there is value, there is deception.

This week’s long read looks at National Parks and the rangers who work to protect them. In his first week in office, President Trump issued an onslaught of executive orders, everything from an attempt to overthrow birthright citizenship to a governmental hiring freeze.

Happy Lunar New Year! Today marks the first day of the lunar calendar and the beginning of festivities for millions of people across Asia and around the world.