The Longreads Blog

Inside The Detroit Bus Company

The city of Detroit has filed for bankruptcy, but there’s some good news from residents like Andy Didorosi, who responded to the death of the city’s light-rail plans by building his own private bus service, The Detroit Bus Company.

Dark Rye, which devoted its June issue to Detroit, took a closer look inside Didorosi’s company for this mini-doc.

More Detroit reading and viewing, including story picks from the Longreads archive:

1. What Killed Aiyana Stanley-Jones? (Charlie LeDuff, Mother Jones, 2010)

2. Detroitism: What Does ‘Ruin Porn’ Tell Us About the Motor City? (John Patrick Leary, Guernica, 2011)

3. Letter from Detroit (Ingrid Norton, Los Angeles Review of Books 2012)

4. Demolishing Detroit (In Order to Save It) (Howie Kahn with photos by Tim Hetherington, GQ, 2011)

5. Go Ahead, Take a Bath. It’s the Detroit Police (Charlie LeDuff, YouTube, 6 min.)

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Our Longreads Member Pick: Something More Wrong, by Katy B. Olson

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This week’s Member Pick comes from The Big Roundtable, a new site for narrative journalism founded by Columbia University professor Michael Shapiro. And they’re giving Longreads Members early access to a brand new story, which won’t go live on their site until next week.

“Something More Wrong,” by Katy B. Olson, is an in-depth look inside the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, New York. Olson explains:

I had always hoped to write about Creedmoor Psychiatric Center. I grew up in a neighborhood a few miles away from the New York State psychiatric institution, and, with all the whispered local rumors as well as books like Susan Sheehan’s 1983 Pulitzer Prize-winning account, Creedmoor maintained a haunting and mysterious presence in my childhood.

My chance to go inside Creedmoor came in 2010, when my mother began working there part-time as a chaplain. After months of negotiating access to report on my Columbia Journalism School thesis, I began interviewing staff in December 2010; many mentioned Ward 3B and its suicidal ‘wild woman’ patients. Soon I was spending two to four days weekly, for six weeks, with the women of 3B: attending groups, doing arts and crafts, eating together, and, as the patients do, relying on aides and their keys to open every door.

In writing this piece, I wanted to understand what drives people to commit suicide. Alice, my subject, like all of us, searches for a reason to live. For some people, causes understood—chemical imbalances, childhood traumas, drug abuse, alcoholism—and many more undiscovered, the will to continue this search can crack and break. For those who have never battled demons like Alice’s, who have never questioned their desire to live, Creedmoor and the people it cares for are unsettling reminders of instincts we cannot—or do not want to—understand.

Though I’ve not come much closer to understanding what it is that makes the will to live so fragile, Alice herself has stripped the fear from me—the fear of Creedmoor and its historical nightmares, and the fear of confronting the very human instinct to give up, which lives in all of us.

Read an excerpt.

Update: The story is now free for everyone here

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Podcast Pick: 'Dec. 31, 1995'

Random Tape is a podcast by David Weinberg, and it’s exactly what its name implies—it’s audio from a random tape. The most recent episode (discovered via @samlistens) is “Dec. 31, 1995,” and it records a troubling argument between what appears to be an older couple, Kenneth and Miriam. 

We asked Weinberg for some context:

“The Kenneth and Miriam tape came from a stranger—a guy who liked the podcast and sent it to me. He picked the cassette up at an estate sale, I can’t remember where though. The unedited tape is so dark. It just goes on and on. There’s no redemption in it. Kenneth and Miriam just get drunker and drunker and meaner and meaner. There’s little forensic evidence of anything other than a bitter marriage and Fox news is playing in the background. Not one sweet moment in the whole recording.

“The first time I listened to it I was in an airport. I distinctly remember watching a stream of people emerge from a plane and feeling really sad for Miriam and disgusted with Kenneth and wondering which of the people walking past me were actually monsters. It was one those recordings that haunted me. (In a strange coincidence I found out later from the man who sent me the tape that Kenneth was an airline pilot.) And at the same time I was a little elated. I had the feeling I get when I come a cross a really great piece of undiscovered tape. And of course I wanted to know more more about Kenneth and Miriam. So I made it up. It’s the first time I tried to do a kind of hybrid piece of writing fiction around found tape.”

Check out more from Random Tape here.

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Playlist: Richard Feynman and 'The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out'

“How foolish they are to try to make something.” Here’s the classic 1981 BBC interview highlighting the work of theoretical physicist Richard Feynman, “The Pleasure of Finding Things Out.” You can also read Feynman’s book of the same name

For further reading and viewing on Feynman:

 

1. The ‘Dramatic Picture’ of Richard Feynman (Freeman Dyson, New York Review of Books, 2011)

“He never showed the slightest resentment when I published some of his ideas before he did. He told me that he avoided disputes about priority in science by following a simple rule: ‘Always give the bastards more credit than they deserve.’ I have followed this rule myself. I find it remarkably effective for avoiding quarrels and making friends. A generous sharing of credit is the quickest way to build a healthy scientific community.”

2. Los Alamos From Below: Reminiscences 1943-1945

Feynman on his work on the Manhattan Project and the development of the atomic bomb: “So I want you to just imagine this young graduate student that hasn’t got his degree yet but is working on his thesis, and I’ll start by saying how I got into the project, and then what happened to me.”

3. Ode to a Flower (Fraser Davidson, Vimeo, 1 min)

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Reading List: Identity

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Emily Perper is a freelance editor and reporter, currently completing a service year in Baltimore with the Episcopal Service Corps.

1. “I Was A Manic Pixie Dream Girl.” (Laurie Penny, New Statesmen, June 2013)

The difference between playing a leading role in your own life and playing a supporting role in everyone else’s.

2. “Promises of an Unwed Father.” (Ta-nehisi Coates, Oprah Magazine, June 2013)

Upon the birth of his baby boy, the talented Coates examines his different entwined roles as partner, father, son and son-in-law.

3. “I Fake It So Real I Am Beyond Fake.” (Emily, Rookie Magazine, July 2013)

The author explains her process of adopting the confidence of others to create her own confidence, from teenage fashion to a career in comedy.

4. “Notes From A Unicorn.” (Seth Fischer, The Rumpus, February 2012)

Fischer faces criticism from many facets of the sexual spectrum for his bisexual identity.

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Photo by Photologic

Longreads Guest Pick: Shannon Proudfoot on 'The King Of The Ferret Leggers'

Shannon Proudfoot is a staff writer at Sportsnet magazine. Previously, she was a national writer with Postmedia News.

“It might not constitute a genre, exactly, but my favorite sort of journalism dives into obscure subcultures with their own rules, etiquette, heroes and hacks. This story is one of my all-time favorites of that type. The main character is unforgettable, perfectly drawn with a few brilliant details and vernacular dialogue. And the writing just crackles—clever, cheeky and nimble, but never getting in the way. Read this snippet and just try not to smirk: ‘Reg pulled the now quite embittered-looking ferret out of his mouth and stuffed it and another ferret into his pants. He cinched his belt tight, clenched his fists at his sides, and gazed up into the gray Yorkshire firmament in what I guessed could only be a gesture of prayer.’ It would have been easy to go for the cheap laugh at the expense of the odd in a story like this, but Donald Katz’s obvious affection for his subject pushes this into a sublime little realm for me.”

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Playlist: 5 Podcasts on the Business of Film and TV

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Gabrielle Gantz (@contextual_life) is the blogger behind The Contextual Life. She’s a frequent longreader and also a big podcast fan, so we asked her for some recommendations.

For a while now we’ve been hearing about the rise of television, how shows like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones have surpassed the film industry when people think of quality viewing experiences. Gone are the days where writers and actors dreamed of making it big in pictures, now talent is flocking to small screen.

Here are some recent interviews that will be of interest to those who like to dig deeper:

WBUR On Point: Is The U.S. Movie Industry Broken? (45 min.)

This is a panel discussion featuring Lynda Obst, a film and television producer whose credits include “Sleepless in Seattle” and whose recent book, Sleepless in Hollywood: Tales from the New Abnormal in the Movie Business, chronicles the recent changes in the movie industry—with big blockbusters more common and smaller films barely getting made. Alongside Obst, sometimes arguing, sometimes agreeing, was Sharon Waxman, CEO and EIC of TheWrap.com.

KCRW The Treatment: Sofia Coppola (29 min.)

Despite the industry’s changes, Coppola is still making “small films,” including her latest, The Bling Ring, a film based on the real-life events (chronicled by Vanity Fair’s Nancy Jo Sales) of a group of California teenagers obsessed with celebrities; so much so that they break into stars’ homes. 

NPR Fresh Air: Elisabeth Moss (41 min.)

Mad Men just wrapped up its sixth season and has one more to go before it’s off the air for good. Terry Gross spoke with Elisabeth Moss (aka Peggy Olson) about the evolution of her character and how much she knows about the show’s direction before shooting an episode. (Read the transcript here.)

The Nerdist: Charlie Hunnam (1 hr., 17 min.)

Here’s Hunnam, who plays Sons of Anarchy‘s “Jax” Teller, with Chris Hardwick on being approached by real bikers and his life growing up in a working-class town in North East England.

The Nerdist Writer’s Panel: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (1 hr.)

Nerdist Writer’s Panel host Ben Blacker sits down with the people behind The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, a web series that’s a modernized adaptation of Pride and Prejudice with the story told primarily through the lead character Lizzie Bennet‘s video diary entries. The episode includes co-creator Bernie Su, writers Margaret Dunlap, Rachel Kiley, and Kate Rorick, and writer/transmedia guy Jay Bushman.

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Photo: Michael Yarish/AMC

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Our Longreads Member Pick: The Faithful Executioner (Excerpt), by Joel F. Harrington

For this week’s Longreads Member Pick (sign up here to receive it), we’re excited to share an excerpt from The Faithful Executioner, a book by Joel F. Harrington, Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, published this year by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Harrington explains:

“My book is based on the personal journal that German executioner Frantz Schmidt (aka Meister Frantz) kept during his forty-five years in the profession, from 1573-1618. During this time, he executed 394 individuals by various methods, and also flogged, disfigured, or tortured many hundreds more. This was clearly an amazingly prolific executioner, but what has been even more intriguing to me since my first encounter of this manuscript is the unexpected portrait of Meister Frantz that emerges: a man forced into an unsavory occupation, who appears to never lose his commitment to fairness, forgiveness, and other humane values. The following passage provides the social and legal background for the era of European history I’ve called ‘the golden age of the executioner.’ The chapters that follow then trace the experiences and thoughts of Frantz Schmidt from his own perspective, largely in his own words, particularly his lifelong quest to restore his family’s honor and free his own children from his cursed profession.”

Read an excerpt

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College Longreads Pick: 'Magazine Junkies,' by Nolan Feeney, Northwestern

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

For readers, summer travel offers a chance to discover a new bookstore or read a magazine you’ve never encountered before. This week’s College Longreads selection takes us to City Newsstand in Chicago, a magazine store that carries many titles you’ve heard of (The Economist) and several thousand you haven’t (RubberStampMadness). Nolan Feeney, a recent graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School, used City Newsstand as a backdrop for a bigger story about changes in the business of magazines. Feeney wrote this story for class last fall, and NewCity Lit, a digital supplement to the Chicago magazine, picked it up in the spring. Today, Feeney covers pop culture and Internet culture for Forbes.com.

Magazine Junkies: Print Thrives at City Newsstand

Nolan Feeney | NewCity Lit | March 2013 | 12 minutes (2,995 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.

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Documentary Pick: 'Two American Families,' from Frontline

In case you missed it last night, here’s Frontline’s “Two American Families,” which tracked two families in Milwaukee over two decades.