The Best of The Atavist Magazine

A tale of disaster, survival, and ghosts.

When Lesley Hu wanted to vaccinate her young son, her conspiracy-obsessed ex-husband went to unimaginable lengths to stop her.

When Johna Ramirez’s son joined a wildly popular circle of tween YouTube influencers, it seemed like he was fulfilling his Hollywood dreams. But in the Squad, fame and fortune came at a cost.…

A woman, an elephant, and their uncommon love story spanning more than half a century.

When a storm surge swept dozens of cattle and wild horses from the coast of North Carolina, no one expected survivors. Then hoofprints appeared in the sand.

A Harvard-trained lawyer was convicted of committing bizarre home invasions. Psychosis may have compelled him to do it. But in a case that became a public sensation, he wasn’t the only one who seemed…

Susie Goodall wanted to circumnavigate the globe in her sailboat without stopping. She didn’t bargain for what everyone else wanted.

With dozens of felines turning up dead around London, a pair of pet detectives set out to prove it was the work of a serial killer.

Two women gave birth on the same day in a place called Come By Chance. They didn’t know each other, and never would. Half a century later, their children made a shocking discovery.

In Grafton, New Hampshire (pop. 1,300), residents will use anything—guns, electric fences, firecrackers, cayenne pepper, bottle rockets—to defend themselves from bears. But is the town's ursine threat just fake news? @hh_matt takes a raucous journey t

In the waning days of the Cold War, Rainer Sonntag helped fuel a neo-Nazi movement that still plagues Germany today. He was also a Communist spy—and worked for Vladimir Putin.