Bankrupt, but there’s a Whole Foods

That the opening of a single grocery store in a single city should be national news might seem hard to explain. Then again, the city is Detroit and the store is Whole Foods, and the full story involves post-industrial decline, growing food insecurity, and a population that refuses to become invisible, or to give up.

Convict cells, graves, and gift shops

Driven by pleasure-seeking and curiosity, over the past century and a half tourism has evolved from a pastime of the leisured rich to a trillion-dollar mass industry. But tourism is about much more than fun and money, historian Richard White tells SCOPE: looked at the right way, it offers an invaluable view into a society’s relationship with its own past, and with its present identity.

Telling stories for a better China

If rampant consumerism is a cultural — not just economic — phenomenon, can a culture be deliberately changed to minimize its effects? Peggy Liu leads China Dream, a project that aims to achieve nothing less with the world’s most populous nation and oldest civilization. SCOPE asks her how she plans to succeed.

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