Ken Burns is probably the country’s most prominent documentary director, a state-supported chronicler (via his role as PBS’s filmmaker laureate) of every major event in American history. When he tackles a subject—the Civil War, baseball, jazz—he imbues it with a sense of gravity and finality, as if offering the last word on the matter. Country Music, his eight-part series spanning a century of tragic heroes and honky-tonk innovators (from the Carter Family to Garth Brooks), is a fittingly monumental ode to one of our greatest and strangest national exports, a story of a genre and its struggle to keep its head as the country transforms. (pbs.org)

In 2017, Christopher Goffard brought us Dirty John, the story of a strange and sadistic grifter who stalked and conned single women along California’s coast. Goffard returns to podcasting with a true-crime tale that is as captivating as his last: In late 2013, sex workers started disappearing from Disneyland’s industrialized outskirts, but it wasn’t until the next year, when their bodies were found, that police started investigating. Goffard follows lead detective Julissa Trapp—the county’s only female homicide detective—from the trash-sorting plant where the first victim was uncovered to the interrogation room where Trapp faced down her lead suspect. (wondery.com)

If you ask about Berlin’s Henne, some may tell you it’s been open for more than 100 years, that J.F.K. once dined there, and that it’s about five yards from the site of the Berlin Wall. None of that matters. What’s important—what you’re there for—is the restaurant’s namesake and only entrée: the fried hen. Heretical as it may seem, Germany is in possession of the world’s greatest fried chicken—an impossibly crispy, tender, and moist bird. Order one with Kartoffelsalat, Krautsalat, and a half-liter of beer. (henne-berlin.de)

Man Ray was not nearly the chess fiend that his lifelong friend and fellow Surrealist Marcel Duchamp was. Still, he designed sets at various times, such as this one, made of anodized aluminum, where both kings are stamped on the bottom with an R. It goes up for auction on December 10, at Wright. (Starting estimate: $10,000; wright20.com)

The world’s smallest four-seat electric vehicle, which goes on sale in Japan next year, is a futuristic car for the end times. The Fomm One’s wheels are fitted with turbine blades to pump out water in the event of floods, driving at 2 miles per hour through water; on dry land, it can get up to 50 miles per hour. The Fomm Corporation is based in Japan—where 25 of the 87 people who died in an October typhoon had been trapped in cars—and it has already received orders from Thailand, another region afflicted by major storms. The design, however, not only aims to protect passengers from climate disasters but also may help prevent future ones: it is made from only 1,600 parts, compared with the average 30,000 pieces required to build automobiles with combustion engines. ($20,359; fomm.co.jp)

A Chinese mall under the metal railing of the Manhattan Bridge is probably the last place you’d expect to find a vintage treasure trove. But James Veloria has the best pre-owned gems, expertly curated by store managers Collin James Weber and Brandon Veloria Giordano, offering a selection of ready-to-wear by the likes of Dior and Balenciaga at ridiculously low prices. Say good-bye to rustling through fraying garments or dealing with snotty shop assistants. If you like clothes with personality—and a 90s Japanese-American twist—this is the spot for you. (jamesveloria.com)