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College Longreads Pick: 'Newtown Youth Sports: A New Normal' by Isabelle Khurshudyan, University of South Carolina

Every week, Syracuse University professor Aileen Gallagher helps Longreads highlight the best of college journalism. Here’s this week’s pick:

Americans spend a lot of time with sports, so “healing power of sports” stories that elevate games beyond, well, games, have an undeniable appeal. But sports writing, when trying to transcend its subject matter, can run a little purple. Combine a sports-as-life story with a national tragedy, and you risk drowning your subjects in overwrought prose. With that in mind, there is much to admire in Isabelle Khurshudyan’s story on ESPN.com about a youth sports camp in Newtown, Conn. Kurshudyan, a student at the University of South Carolina who wrote this as a summer intern, demonstrates impressive restraint and respect for her subjects and their experience by letting them do the talking. Her straightforward, spare approach to writing gives the piece its own gravity.

Newtown Youth Sports: A New Normal

Isabelle Khurshudyan | ESPN | 13 minutes (3,309 words)

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Professors and students: Share your favorite stories by tagging them with #college #longreads on Twitter, or email links to aileen@longreads.com.

The Producers: A Reading List on Musical Masterminds

From Matt Graves: Here are six of his story picks on the topic of music producers, the often-overlooked architects of the music we hear and love.

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1. “The Song Machine: the Hitmakers Behind Rihanna,” by John Seabrook (The New Yorker, March 2012)

In her ascent to the pop throne, Rihanna had some unlikely help: a singer from Muskogee, Oklahoma and a two-man team of Norwegian producers. Meet Ester Dean and Stargate, pop’s unknown puppeteers.

2. “Disco Architect: 12 x 12 with Brass Construction’s Randy Muller,” by Andrew Mason (Wax Poetics, Fall 2004)

The true story of how one 18-year-old, born in Guyana and raised in Brooklyn, became the unsung godfather of 1970s disco.

3. “How Copyright Law Changed Hip Hop: An interview with Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Hank Shocklee,” by Kembrew McLeod (Stay Free! Magazine, 2002)

Public Enemy burst onto the 1980s hip-hop scene with a sound unlike anything the world had ever heard. Their groundbreaking beats were supplied by The Bomb Squad, a two-man team who turned sampling into a complex, noisy and compelling new art form that changed hip-hop forever.

4. “Philippe Zdar: The French Touch,” by Amber Bravo (The Fader, June 2012)

Is Philippe Zdar the best producer you’ve never heard of? From Parisian disco and Phoenix’s “Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart” to records from Cat Power, Beastie Boys and Cassius, you’ve probably felt his influence, even if you didn’t know his name.

5. “Arthur Baker: From Planet Rock To Star Maker,” by Richard Buskin (Sound on Sound, June 1997)

How Arthur Baker, a failed disco DJ from Boston, made his musical mark on the 1980s—from hip-hop (Afrika Bambaata’s “Planet Rock”) and dance (New Order’s “Confusion”), to pop (New Edition’s “Candy Girl”) and rock.

6. “Rick Rubin: The Intuitionist,” by Will Welch (The Fader, 2004)

From Kanye’s “Yeezus” and Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” to Johnny Cash’s cover of NIN’s “Hurt”, Rick Rubin has been the music world’s (mad)man behind the curtain.

The Best Civil Rights Stories

As the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington approaches next week (August 28), Longreads has teamed up with Al Jazeera America’s “America Tonight”to collect the best civil rights stories.

We want your help: Share your favorite stories below in the comments, and we’ll spotlight some of your picks next week. They can be historical texts, stories from the archives, or newer reporting and essays.

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Photo by Warren K. Leffler (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Wikimedia Commons)

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Reading List: Sex Work and Sex Workers

Emily Perper is word-writing human for hire. She blogs about her favorite longreads at Diet Coker.

This week’s theme is sex work and sex workers. Such a complex subject is best explored through a variety of forms—essay, investigation, photo essay and interview.

1. “When the Fight Against Slut-Shaming Overlooks Victim-Blaming.” (Sometimes Magical, June 2013)

The author chastises so-called feminists for embracing sex positivity while remaining complicit in whore-shaming, using Biblical characters as examples. She makes the important distinction between those engaging in sex work of their own free will and those forced into sex trafficking. Both groups deserve dignity and respect, she writes, and have the potential to be great allies to one another.

2. “LinkedIn doesn’t care if we’re assaulted”: Sex Workers Speak Out.” (Gaby Dunn, The Daily Dot, May 2013)

LinkedIn’s latest policy update forbids sex workers of any kind to create profiles, send messages, or network at all. This risks the safety, security, and financial well-being of sex workers, degrades their professions and furthers the stigmatic status quo against them. Dunn interviews sex workers, sex rights activists, and LinkedIn representatives.

3. “This Is Not Just A Story About Prostitution.” (Coburn Dukeheart, NPR, August 2013)

Alicia Vera is a photojournalist. Eden, her friend, is a prostitute. With tenderness, Alicia documents a week in Eden’s life, as she goes to court, goes about her business, and talks to her mom about her job. (The link above is to NPR’s coverage; here is Alicia’s site, which has photos NPR could not publish. NSFW.)

4. “Johns, Marks, Tricks, and Chickenhawks: The Rumpus Interview with Veronica Monet.” (David Henry Sterry, The Rumpus, July 2013)

Veronica Monet traded the corporate life for a job as an escort, then a courtesan, as well as a vocal sex rights activist, speaker, author, minister and more. She discusses what led her to sex work, the pros and cons of the profession, and whether she recommends sex work to others.

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Photo by Alicia Vera

Longreads Guest Pick: Win Bassett on 'The Poorest Rich Kids in the World'

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Win Bassett is a writer, lawyer, and seminarian at Yale.

My treasured longread of the week is Sabrina Rubin Erdely’s “The Poorest Rich Kids in the World” in Rolling Stone. I lived down the road from Duke University for ten years, but one doesn’t need any familiarity with the Blue Devils to become enthralled with the tale of a family haunted by real demons. Erdely writes near the beginning of her story, “When they turn 21, the family claims, the twins will inherit a trust fund worth $1 billion.” But by the end of the heroin-filled, heart-wrenching saga that involves blood, guns, torture, and even lions, one learns all the money in the world can’t save the heirs of the Duke family.

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Longreads Member Pick: 'Quebrado,' by Jeff Sharlet

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This week, we’re excited to share a Member Pick from Jeff Sharlet, a professor at Dartmouth and bestselling author of The FamilyC Street, and Sweet Heaven When I Die. “Quebrado” is a chapter from Sweet Heaven, first published in Rolling Stone in 2008, about Brad Will, a young American journalist and activist.

Read an excerpt here.

Become a Longreads Member to receive this week’s pick.

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Illustration by Kjell Reigstad

College Longreads Pick: 'Gym Class Heroes' by James Costanzo, Syracuse University

Every week, Syracuse University professor Aileen Gallagher helps Longreads highlight the best of college journalism. Here’s this week’s pick:

Good reporting demands observation, but student journalists often struggle with the kind of focused hanging around you have to do with a subject to capture some accurate sense of them. How does the subject move? How do they interact with their environment, with other people? There’s so much information to gather before you ever ask a question, but the only way to get it is to shut up and watch. James Costanzo, who just completed a graduate journalism program at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, wrote about a parkour teacher in Manhattan earlier this summer for the tablet magazine Vertical Floor. It’s not only well reported but well written, because the writer took the time to observe.

Gym Class Heroes

James Costanzo | Vertical Floor Magazine | 7 minutes (1,668 words)

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Professors and students: Share your favorite stories by tagging them with #college #longreads on Twitter, or email links to aileen@longreads.com.

Playlist: 5 Podcast Episodes on the History of Hip-Hop

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Gabrielle Gantz (@contextual_life) is the blogger behind The Contextual Life, a frequent longreader, and a fan of podcasts. 

1. How Hip-Hop Works (Stuff You Should Know, 52:13)

In this episode of Stuff You Should Know, hosts Chuck and Josh discuss the history of hip-hop, from The Sugar Hill Gang to the present. They add their own personal history, which includes stories of attempted breakdancing and well-intentioned clothing choices.

2. Los Angeles Review of Books: 2pac and Biggie (1 hr.)

Co-authors Jeff Weiss and Evan McGarvey speak with host Colin Marshall about their book 2pac vs. Biggie: An Illustrated History of Rap’s Greatest Battle. They talk about the artists’ rivalry, their beginnings, how their styles differed, and why you’re missing out if you only listen to one and not the other.

3. NPR Fresh Air: Questlove (45:14)

The drummer for The Roots talks about his influences growing up, how he listens to music, and his favorite part of Soul Train. (Bonus: Also check out Terry Gross’s classic 2010 interview with Jay-Z.)

4. Bullseye (formerly Sound of Young America): Dan Charnas, author of The Big Payback (44:00)

Dan Charnas, a veteran hip-hop journalist and one of the first writers for The Source, talks with Jesse Thorn about the history of the hip-hop music business and how executives and entrepreneurs turned an underground scene into the world’s predominant pop culture.

5. WBUR On Point: Fame and Fortune of Jay-Z (48:00)

Andrew Rice, contributing editor for New York magazine, spoke about his article on Jay-Z’s business acumen with James Braxton Peterson, director of Africana Studies, professor of English at Lehigh University, and founder of Hip Hop Scholars. Together they delve into the financial side of Jay-Z’s career.

6. KCRW The Treatment: Michael Rapaport, “Beats, Rhymes & Life” (28:29)

If you were around in the ’90s, you might recognize Michael Rapaport from movies like Zebrahead, Poetic Justice, and Higher Learning. In 2011, he came out with a documentary on A Tribe Called Quest. He talks to The Treatment’s Elvis Mitchell about his love of hip-hop, his childhood in New York City, and his experience filming his favorite artists.

Got a favorite podcast episode on hip-hop? Share it in the comments. 


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Reading List: 4 for Laughing

Emily Perper is word-writing human for hire. She blogs about her favorite longreads at Diet Coker.

During rough weeks, I tend to refer back to a good #longread over and over. Here are four of the funniest around. Bookmark them, read them to your best friend on the phone, or save them for a particularly bad day. And when you read them, laugh.

1. “The Hunt for the Worst Movie of All Time: Elizabethtown” (Gabe Delahaye, Videogum, July 2013)

Elizabethtown gave us the Manic Pixie Dream Girl moniker, a wealth of plot inconsistencies and a weirdly ambitious road trip mixtape map.

2. “My Mother Explains The Ballet To Me” (Jesse Eisenberg, The New Yorker, July 2013)

“Why can’t you stand like that guy on stage? Look at his posture. Forget he’s black for a second, and just look at his body.” Eisenberg goes to the ballet with his mother so you don’t have to.

3. “The Dark Side of the Paddock” (Drew Millard, Kill Screen, February 2012)

Capturing the existential hilarity of the video game My Horse, this essay is bookmarked in Safari so I can read it when I’m feeling down.

4. “Flick Chicks: A Guide to Women in the Movies” (Mindy Kaling, The New Yorker, October 2011)

No one understands the intricacies of romantic comedy and genuinely loves the genre quite like Kaling does. Here, her descriptions of the supporting characters in rom-coms are spot-on.


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Longreads Guest Pick: Leigh Cowart on David Quammen's 'The Short Happy Life of a Serengeti Lion'

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Leigh Cowart is the Sex and Science Editor at NSFWCORP. She exists solely on rage and strange cheeses.

Telling you how good David Quammen’s “The Short Happy Life of a Serengeti Lion” is feels like a spoiler. No, I’d much rather slide my copy of National Geographic across the table and let you discover, for yourself, one lion’s brutal, ceaseless struggle for sovereignty. With prose visceral enough to implant memories, and devoid of any anthropomorphic dilution, Quammen has delivered a true feat of intimacy. Simply put, to read his words is to know lions.

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