China’s Communist Government Has a Strong Hold on Chinese Corporations By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight China’s largest e-commerce company is not only changing the way people in China shop, but how they think about commerce and each other in a Communist country.
Longreads Best of 2019: Business Writing By Longreads Commentary We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in business writing.
All Hail the Inventor of the Crock Pot: Irving Nachumsohn By Krista Stevens Highlight Irving Nachumsohn invented the crock pot so that his family didn’t have to use the stove to prepare dinner on hot summer evenings. You’re welcome.
Under the Influence: Watch(wo)men By Soraya Roberts Feature We watch the (women) influencers watching the (heavily female) influencing industry, but the men aren’t entirely in the dark.
The Soundtrack to Hell By Krista Stevens Highlight “Not only was the whine agitating—EHHNNNNNNNN—but its constant drone was like a cruel mnemonic for everything that bothered him.”
Under the Influence: Deeper Than Beauty By Soraya Roberts Feature Influencers who break type, like Mina Gerges or Jakiya Brown, have more than just an image. They have a story — and a plan.
The Boeing 737 MAX: “Fatally Flawed” By Krista Stevens Highlight Boeing’s failings with the 737 MAX reveal a dangerous deviation from its engineering-first culture that used to put the safety of the flying public before profit.
Under the Influence: White Lies By Soraya Roberts Feature When you read “influencer,” do you think “white woman”? That’s not a surprise: the stereotypes originally established offline are reaffirmed on social media by the same systems.
Meet Michael Gillespie, the Ransomeware Superhero of Normal, Illinois By Krista Stevens Highlight Michael Gillespie has automated a way to decrypt ransomeware, and he gives his code away for free just to help people in need.
We’re All Tourists Now, So Let’s Stop with the Endless, Tedious Quests for Authenticity By Ben Huberman Highlight In Iceland, overtourism has transformed the island in a few short years — and locals and visitors alike try to grapple with the change.
Olympic Destroyer: The Cyberattack on the 2018 Winter Games By Krista Stevens Highlight It was Russia, in the cybertubes, using stolen passwords, a secret backdoor, and layers upon layers of false flag cloak work meant to stump security analysts.
The Great Fiber-Optic Fraudster of Alaska By Krista Stevens Highlight To this day, only Elizabeth Pierce knows why she defrauded partners and investors by forging contract signatures.
McDonald’s Starts Serving McTech to Survive in the Modern Age By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Rapidly modernizing has caused the McDonald’s company some growing pains, but embracing Big Tech might just save them from their old analog self.
How Google Discovered the Value of Surveillance By Longreads Feature In 2002, still reeling from the dot-com crash, Google realized they’d been harvesting a very valuable raw material — your behavior.
Paul Clarke Wants to Live By Rebecca Tan Feature When a promising student left a neighborhood full of heroin for the University of Pennsylvania, it should have been a moving story. But what does an at-risk student actually need to thrive — or even just to survive?
We Could Have Had Electric Cars from the Very Beginning By Longreads Feature Early electric cars performed better in cities than internal combustion vehicles, but didn’t give riders the same illusion of freedom and masculine derring-do.
We All Work for Facebook By Livia Gershon Feature Digital labor is valuable even when we do it for free. Should we get paid?
The Man Who’s Going to Save Your Neighborhood Grocery Store By Joe Fassler Feature American food supplies are increasingly channeled through a handful of big companies: Amazon, Walmart, FreshDirect, Blue Apron. What do we lose when local supermarkets go under? A lot — and Kevin Kelley wants to stop that.
This Is Why No One Answers the Phone Anymore By Michelle Weber Highlight Robocalls are a scourge, and it’s only a matter of time before the technology learns to spoof your mother’s voice.
Zuckerberg’s Trash Is a Subculture’s Treasure By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight An entire subculture of Bay Area residents survives by reselling wealthy residents’ trash.
‘Intelligent Education’ and China’s Grand AI Experiment By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight Seven schools in China have installed facial recognition technology in classrooms to monitor — and score — their students. At The Disconnect, Yujie Xue reports on this “intelligent education” initiative.
What’s a Good Hourly Wage for Developing PTSD? By Michelle Weber Highlight Asking for a friend called Facebook.
‘Stanford Is the Valley’: On Grooming Tech’s Next Generation By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight Amid controversies and unethical practices, tech giants like Facebook and Google are no longer dream companies to work for.
Repairman-man-man-(wo)man By Catherine Cusick Highlight Lauren Hough recounts a decade of misadventures as a female cable tech in the DC Metro Area.
Defrauding the Competition By Catherine Cusick Highlight As competitors prank each other into account suspensions, the business of reinstating Amazon Marketplace businesses is booming.
‘Mommy, Are We Famous?’: On the Rise of Kid Influencers on Instagram By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight Kids are a growing part of Instagram’s influencer marketing industry. At Fast Company, Katharine Schwab reports on the rising stars of the platform — and the parents managing their “careers” behind the scenes.
The Rich Man and the Sea By Michelle Weber Highlight Laurie Penny spends four days on a boat confronting the archetypal story of “man vs. blockchain.”
