This week, we’re sharing stories from Matthew Shaer, John Woodrow Cox, Bethany McLean, Robin Wright, and David Sedaris.
Sign up to receive this list free every Friday in your inbox.
* * *
1. The Long, Lonely Road of Chelsea Manning
Matthew Shaer | New York Times Magazine | June 12, 2017 | 38 minutes (9,500 words)
The New York Times Magazine has the first interview and profile of Chelsea Manning after her release from prison after seven years: “When I asked her to draw lessons from her journey, she grew uneasy. ‘I don’t have. …᾿ she started. ‘Like, I’ve been so busy trying to survive for the past seven years that I haven’t focused on that at all.’”
2. Twelve Seconds of Gunfire
John Woodrow Cox | Washington Post | June 9, 2017 | 19 minutes (4,946 words)
The shooting at the elementary school lasted just 12 seconds, but the damaging effect it had on a group of first-graders continues to endure months later.
3. How Wells Fargo’s Cutthroat Corporate Culture Allegedly Drove Bankers to Fraud
Bethany McLean | Vanity Fair | June 1, 2017 | 23 minutes (5,921 words)
Between 2011 and 2015, staff at Wells Fargo banks created over 1.5 million deposit accounts and 565,000 credit-card accounts without customers approval. The practice is called ‘gaming.’ It violated company ethics, but too many employees at the company let it happen.
4. Mosul’s Library Without Books
Robin Wright | The New Yorker | June 12, 2017 | 6 minutes (1,541 words)
How the Mosul University Library — once home to books and documents dating to antiquity and destroyed by ISIS militants — is becoming the epicenter of Iraq’s cultural rebirth as the homemade mines are removed, Mosul University is rebuilt, and the book drives begin.
5. A Number of Reasons I’ve Been Depressed Lately
David Sedaris | The Paris Review | June 5, 2017 | 9 minutes (2,313 words)
In this day and age, this is a pretty short list.