Krista Stevens

“Former Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Bernette Johnson’s fiery dissents on mass incarceration and sentencing in America’s most carceral state garnered international attention. But the rise of the first Black woman on the court was characterized by one battle after another with the Deep South’s white power structure.”

“People with obsessive-compulsive disorder are often depicted as Type A clean freaks. The reality is much worse.”

Amanda Petrusich on blueswoman Bessie Smith: “She got what she wanted by working hard at it, finding new ways to profit from a cultivated skill. Some of the notes she hits are so robust, so fixed and powerful, listening to them feels like walking directly into a sliding glass door. You are stunned and embarrassed, […]

In rural America in the early part of last century, women who did full-time labor to keep households and farms running while raising children were considered unemployed unless they earned a wage. Country music pioneer Mother Maybelle Carter often did double duty, laboring at home by day, raising children, and playing shows at night for […]

They won the Alaska newspaper giveaway. Then the pandemic arrived.

“Ariel Saramandi on the sinking of the MV Wakashio off the coast of Mauritius.”