Features

Many people say that the only way to quit a gang is in a body bag. But Pentecostalist churches can offer a way out alive

The players are celebrities, the fans are fanatical and someone, hopefully, is going to get very rich. Simon Parkin meets the people trying to turn competitive video-gaming into a professional sport

Her children have made waves with fast cars and slow food. Maye Musk tells Natasha Loder how she produced a family of entrepreneurs

The world’s only living natural experiment in the creation of language has happened among the deaf in Nicaragua. As Dan Rosenheck discovered, it has fundamentally changed how linguists think about one of civilisation’s greatest mysteries

Many Chinese parents are frustrated by the country’s rote-based curriculum. As Fiammetta Rocco discovered, the demand for creative education is transforming Beijing’s top contemporary art venue

White-collar workers are fleeing their desks to become brewers, bakers and pickle-makers. Ryan Avent reckons the artisanal boom points to the modern economy’s failings, and maybe its future as well

Loneliness is silent, invisible and as deadly as a smoking habit. Maggie Fergusson seeks out those beside themselves at being by themselves

At a state penitentiary in Arizona, prisoners are learning how to tame wild horses. As Haley Cohen found, these are also lessons for life – and for corrections policy

Board games are back, thanks to the lessons their designers have learned from computer games. Tim Cross rolls the dice

Everyone has heard of Vesuvius but the caldera of Campi Flegrei is a far more dangerous volcano. Helen Gordon travels to Naples to understand the enormous threat it poses