Lavish Parties, Greedy Pols and Panic Rooms: How the ‘Apple of Pot’ Collapsed

“MedMen was the country’s hottest pot startup—until it flamed out. Its fall has exposed the gap between “green rush” hype and the realities of a troubled industry.”

Source: Politico
Published: Jun 24, 2020
Length: 33 minutes (8,333 words)

‘F**king N***er.’ A Racist Incident on Bachelors Walk

“I thought about what it meant to have a stranger’s saliva on my skin. Did it sink into my pores, or slide its way into my mouth? The possibility that their violence would linger on me, in me, forever, was untenable.”

Source: The Irish Times
Published: Feb 29, 2020
Length: 6 minutes (1,697 words)

Your Wilderness Is Not Permanent

At an uncertain time in her life, Sejal Shah does Burning Man her own way. An excerpt from This Is One Way to Dance, her new memoir in essays.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jun 3, 2020
Length: 14 minutes (3,746 words)

It Does Not Matter If You Are Good

“You learn, at some point, how to perform being non-threatening and you learn that often it matters less how well you perform and more whether the audience for said performance believes it.”

Source: Elle
Published: May 29, 2020
Length: 5 minutes (1,367 words)

Long May They Reign

“A butterfly named Flamingo, an epic migration, and the crusade to save one of America’s most iconic species.”

Source: The Atavist
Published: May 31, 2020
Length: 38 minutes (9,500 words)

The Sound and The Fury of Jericho Brown

“His poetry deftly names the forces — be it cop, disease, or addiction — that would have him dead, while he celebrates the beauty, be it in a flower, in a lover’s embrace, or in anything that helps him thrive in this burning world.”

Published: Jun 2, 2020
Length: 18 minutes (4,712 words)

The American Nightmare

“Either there is something superior or inferior about the races, something dangerous and deathly about black people, and black people are the American nightmare; or there is something wrong with society, something dangerous and deathly about racist policy, and black people are experiencing the American nightmare.” One is a racist myth; the other, antiracist truth.

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Jun 1, 2020
Length: 10 minutes (2,595 words)

Who Gets to Be Afraid in America?

“I just don’t think Americans fully realize how terrorizing it is to black males when we are falsely suspected as violent criminals.”

Source: The Atlantic
Published: May 12, 2020
Length: 7 minutes (1,875 words)

Cops Are Always the Main Characters

Cop shows humanize cops. They align us with the police. They desensitize us to police violence. It’s time to turn that CSI marathon off.

Source: Vulture
Published: Jun 1, 2020
Length: 5 minutes (1,375 words)

On Travel Writing

Shelter in place has given The Best American Travel Writing series editor a lot of time to think about travel writing’s future, and whether pandemic will move travel writers’ focus closer to home.

Published: May 26, 2020
Length: 8 minutes (2,017 words)