Outlook Magazine - Horror Island - 01 March 2026 Issue

In January, a newly released cache linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein shed further light on his network and the failures of federal investigations into his crimes. In the March 1 issue titled The Horror Island, Outlook looks at how the rich and powerful are a law unto themselves. It looks at whether all of us have become voyeuristic participants in the normalisation of such crimes. Author Urvashi Butalia writes that how in the minds of men, women are just commodities to used. Sex with minor girls is horrifying enough, but not for the Epstein network, writes novelist and critic Saikat Majumdar. As the Epstein files resurface, are we seeking justice or feeding a system that turns suffering into spectacle? asks Lalita Iyer in The Algorithm of Trauma. Mohammad Ali in A Page One Silence writes that the response to the Epstein files and their importance has been filtered through a media ecosystem For nearly three decades, Epstein followed a consistent pattern: vulnerability. Zenaira Bakhsh and Mrinalini Dhyani looks at how Epstein operated his ‘molestation pyramid scheme’. Snigdhendu Bhattacharya looks at Epstein’s life, his associates and his lack of employment even. Vineetha Mokkil writes in Bad Karma on new age spiritual guru and ‘consciousness expander’ Deepak Chopra. Peggy Mohan in Words That Numb looks at how terms like ‘underage women’, ‘sex with a child’, have begun to hit a nerve. But at the end of it, what happens to these people? Will it only end in outrage and no change and ultimately forgotten? Read all this and more in the latest issue of Outlook.