Search Results for: Natasha Gardner

The Bureaucracy of Death: A Reading List

Kemmler_exécuté_par_l'électricité

Although more and more countries are abolishing capital punishment, over half the world’s population lives in four of the countries that continue to use it: India, Indonesia, China — and the United States. U.S. public opinion continues to move against the death penalty, but while some states have overturned capital punishment (or never had it), most still sentence people to die. These four pieces examine the range of flaws in a system whose irreversible outcome can ill afford them.

Read more…

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

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

Sign up to receive this list free every Friday in your inbox.

***

Read more…

On Early Puberty

image

“I stepped out of the bathroom, walked over to my mom, and placed a hand on her shoulder. ‘Mom, I have something to tell you.’ I paused, letting the world slow down for one last moment. ‘I’m hemorrhaging.’

“She didn’t burst into tears, faint, or tear at her hair. She snorted. I was aghast. How could my mother respond so casually to the news of my mortality? When she stopped laughing, she turned to me and said, without preamble: ‘It’s your period.’”

Natasha Gardner, in 5280 Magazine, on early puberty in girls and what happens when they grow up. Read more from 5280 Magazine.

***

We need your help to get to 5,000 Longreads Members.

Join Longreads now and help us keep going.

Rude Awakening

Longreads Pick

Natasha Gardner on girls and early puberty, and what happens after they grow up:

In the United States, menstruation generally arrives when a girl is 12-and-a-half years old; that hasn’t changed significantly in recent decades. What has changed is the onset of early, or “precocious,” puberty, which triggers breast development and pubic hair as early as seven (for boys, the cutoff is nine). Until the late 1990s, researchers thought puberty usually started around age 11. By 1997, the average age bumped down to 9.96 years; today, it may start as early as six-and-a-half years old. Although environmental chemicals, hormone levels in water supplies, and mere evolution have been cited as possible culprits, researchers still don’t know why the shift is happening.

Source: 5280 Magazine
Published: Oct 29, 2013
Length: 6 minutes (1,602 words)

“Escape.” Natasha Gardner, 5280 Magazine

Top 5 #Longreads of the Week: The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, City Pages Minneapolis, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, plus a guest pick from 5280 Magazine editor Natasha Gardner.

Unwanted: Inside Colorado's Dysfunctional Foster Care System

Unwanted: Inside Colorado’s Dysfunctional Foster Care System