Dispatches on the odd behaviors of the nonhuman animals with which we share the planet have been some of our most popular with readers, with the “decorous” cows of Cambridge, England, and the wild and crazy oysters of Croatia two personal favorites (though those ostensibly despondent dogs drew a much larger, if more uneasy, audience).

Our own species’ passion for testing the body’s physical limits in extreme sports has been explored in multiple Dispatches, from surfers who brave 10-story waves in Portugal to Senegalese men and women who don’t let Dakar’s almost unbearable air pollution get in the way of their creative daily workouts.

Investigating how global figures may have been shaped by where they, or their ancestors, were born has been another recurring topic. What does Kallstadt, Germany, where Herbert, Ilse and Ursula Trump still live, have to tell us about the current American president?