In 2011, Diederik Stapel, a bright social psychologist at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, was suspended for fabricating data on a study that brought him much praise. At the Guardian, Stephen Buranyi profiles the team of researchers from the university’s psychology department, Chris Hartgerink and Marcel van Assen, who have since focused their research on scientific fraud.
Quotes
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
How A Simple Mistake Can Put You on the Street: Why Grandpa is Homeless
At Pacific Standard, Rachel Nuwer reports on the aging homeless population of California and how something seemingly innocuous — like forgetting to renew your driver’s licence on time — can instigate a downward spiral into poverty and homelessness that skyrocketing rent and street-inflicted trauma can extend, sometimes indefinitely.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Living the American Dream in Comer, Georgia: The Garden of Refugees
The story of Eh Kaw Htoo, a Karen refugee from Myanmar — a man who “extolled the redneck’s work ethic” and helped build a community of 150 Karens who sustain one another by living frugally and sharing the bounty of the land in the rural community of Comer, Georgia.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
(Don’t) Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em
June Thunderstorm, writing in The Baffler with the support of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, digs into the race and class issues that underlie efforts to quell smoking. Is “public health” really the name of the game?
Posted inProfiles & Interviews, Quotes
Birds as an Antidote to Bombastic Noise, or How to De-stress in Stressful Times
In this interview, author Kyo Maclear talks of birds and bird-watching as an “ode to the beauty of smallness, of quiet, of seeing the unique in the ordinary… in an age in which bombastic noise often triumphs over quiet contemplation.”
Posted inNonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes
The Inner Tiny House Journey: Jay Shafer on Finding Meaning in Things
Mark Sundeen, writing for Outside, traveled to the National Tiny House Jamboree in 2016 and talked to some of the tiny house movement’s pioneers, including its “godfather” Jay Shafer. Over a cigarette break in the woods — away from all the tiny space swooners, wannabe-minimalists, and sales reps — Shafer tells him a bit about his design philosophy and the purpose of material objects.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Messy Divides in Travel Writing
“Where do we draw the line between writing about ‘travel’ and writing about ‘place’?”
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Carrying the Weight of Black Experience — and Literature — Along the Appalachian Trail
Rahawa Haile writes about hiking over 2000 miles on the Appalachian Trail in 2016, and carrying with her books by black authors, which she’d leave behind for others to find at shelters along the way.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Georgia: Asian, European, or Just Georgian?
Joshua Kucera travels to the nation of Georgia, along the border of Russia and Europe, to examine the longstanding debate about whether it belongs to Asia, Europe, or the Middle East, and why it matters.
Posted inEditor's Pick, Nonfiction, Quotes
The Misunderstood Genius of Russell Westbrook
Sam Anderson of the New York Times Magazine reports on Russell Westbrook, the Oklahoma City Thunder guard and the best player in the NBA. What’s extraordinary about this piece isn’t just Anderson’s insight (he wrote about the Thunder for the NYTM in 2012), or how his vivid descriptions of the utter ferocity and skill with which Westbrook plays—it’s that Anderson was likely allowed 10 or so minutes to spend actually interviewing Westbrook, a famously taciturn subject. The piece is a marvel of observational reporting.