Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Below, our favorite stories of the week. Kindle users, you can also get them as a Readlist.

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1. The Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous

Gabrielle Glaser | The Atlantic | March 16, 2015 | 33 minutes (8,292 words)

Glaser examines the history of the popular, faith-based 12-step program that dominates alcohol abuse treatment in the U.S. and asks why we’ve ignored several other effective treatments.

2. Inside the Mad, Mad World of TripAdvisor

Tom Vanderbilt | Outside | March 13, 2015 | 20 minutes (5,032 words)

How the social travel site changed the way we plan our trips.

3. Escape From New York

Ellen Willis | Village Voice | July 29, 1981 | 41 minutes (10,420 words)

The late Ellen Willis—a legendary feminist and cultural critic—writes about loneliness, human connection and aging radicals in the context of a solo cross-country Greyhound bus trip. The essay originally appeared as a 1981 cover story in the Village Voice, and was later reprinted in The Essential Ellen Willis.

4. Gone in 30 Seconds

Greg Nichols | Los Angeles Magazine | March 18, 2015 | 19 minutes (4,970 words)

How four California Highway Patrol officers with little undercover experience posed as Vegas players to take down motorcycle thieves in LA.

5. She Was Abandoned as a Baby, Found at a Train Depot in 1915. Then She Lived to 100.

Joe Kovac Jr. | Macon Telegraph | March 14, 2015 | 8 minutes (2,100 words)

The life story of Annie Ione Rachels Pacifici.