David Sessions is a doctoral student in European intellectual history at Boston College. A former editor at The Daily Beast, his writing has also appeared in Slate, JacobinNewsweek and others, and he is the founding editor of Patrol, a blog about religion and politics.

Fact Check

Neil Degrasse Tyson’s remake of the 1980s series tries to explain how early-modern thinkers began to discover the wonders of the universe. Its history is as cartoonish as its graphics.

Tough Luck

Author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza was indicted for encouraging fraudulent campaign donations—just the latest in a spiral that has all but sunk his career in the conservative movement.

Obit

An unapologetic architect of a brutal torture regime in Algeria, Paul Aussaresses taught his deadly tactics to the CIA in America and Pinochet’s secret police in Chile.

Longreads

From the animal injury epidemic on Hollywood movie sets to Washington’s trouble with the new legal marijuana economy, The Daily Beast picks the best journalism from around the web this week.

Longreads

From the inside story of an elderly adjunct professor’s death in poverty to MOOC pioneer Sebastian Thrun’s admission of defeat, The Daily Beast picks the best journalism from around the web this week.