The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

This week, we’re sharing stories from John Woodrow Cox, Danielle McNally, Matt Richtel and Andrew Jacobs, Michelle Dean, and John Knight.

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1. Children Under Fire

John Woodrow Cox | Washington Post | September 15, 2017 | 14 minutes (3,526 words)

In the U.S., nearly two dozen children are shot every day. John Woodrow Cox follows the story of one of these children, four-year-old Carter “Quis” Hill, who was shot in the head during a road rage incident.

2. These Women Are the Last Thing Standing Between You and Nuclear War

Danielle McNally | Marie Claire | September 8, 2017 | 14 minutes (3,500 words)

Danielle McNally profiles the female Air Force missileers protecting the U.S.’s nuclear arsenal. There are now enough women in their ranks that sometimes all of the missileers on duty are female.

3. How Big Business Got Brazil Hooked on Junk Food

Matt Richtel, Andrew Jacobs | The New York Times | September 16, 2017 | 18 minutes (4,553 words)

Companies like Nestlé and PepsiCo are aggressively marketing their processed food products in developing nations like Brazil and India. The result: a global epidemic of obesity-related illnesses, where instead of malnutrition and hunger, more people are now obese than underweight.

4. Snopes and the Search for Facts in a Post-Fact World

Michelle Dean | Wired | September 20, 2017 | 19 minutes (4,873 words)

How the legendary internet fact-finding site snopes.com came to be, and how a messy divorce, and ownership and control squabbles have threatened the site’s existence.