This week, we’re sharing stories from Susan Chira and Catrin Einhorn, John Branch, Amanda Mull, Mimi O’Donnell and Adam Green, and Mansi Choksi.
Sign up to receive this list free every Friday in your inbox.
* * *
1. How Tough Is It to Change a Culture of Harassment? Ask Women at Ford.
Susan Chira, Catrin Einhorn | The New York Times | December 19, 2017 | 21 minutes (5,368 words)
A multimedia exposé of the ongoing sexual harassment and misconduct toward women at Ford Motor Company. Despite numerous lawsuits filed and settled in the 1990s, a threatening culture has persisted and led to a new round of litigations. Reporters Susan Chira and Catrin Einhorn investigate whether that culture can survive the #MeToo revolution. What will it take to bring down male auto workers, managers, and union leaders who have harassed or violated women, in the way that they are being taken down in Hollywood, media, and the food world?
2. Deliverance From 27,000 Feet
John Branch | The New York Times | December 18, 2017 | 55 minutes (13,823 words)
In May 2016, four Bengali mountaineers attempted to achieve a lifelong dream: to summit Mount Everest. After an egregiously late start to their summit attempt, they were abandoned by their guides and left to die on the mountain. Only one survived. John Branch reports on the ill-fated expedition and how a team of sherpas recovered the frozen bodies of Goutam Ghosh and Paresh Nath from 27,000 ft above sea level.
3. Why Aren’t Fashion ‘Disruptors’ Serving Plus-Size Customers?
Amanda Mull | Racked | December 20, 2017 | 11 minutes (2,790 words)
Apparently making pants for fat people is so radically difficult from making pants for thin people that it will take years of additional R&D.
4. Mimi O’Donnell Reflects on the Loss of Philip Seymour Hoffman and the Devastation of Addiction
Mimi O’Donnell, Adam Green | Vogue | December 13, 2017 | 15 minutes (3,784 words)
Mimi O’Donnell reflects on her late husband, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, his very public death via overdose, and overcoming loss as a family of four.
5. The Newlyweds
Mansi Choksi | Harper’s Magazine | January 1, 2018 | 26 minutes (6,739 words)
If you’re a young couple looking for a love marriage in India, you could turn to the Love Commandos to perform your marriage ceremony and register your union with the government to make it legal. Beware that in addition to paying an expensive fee, you’ll be expected to clean, cook, run errands, and walk the bomb-sniffing dog at the Love Commando safe house.
Get the Longreads Weekly Email