The Saudi Connection: Inside the 9/11 Case That Divided the F.B.I.

Of the 19 hijackers who carried out the 9/11 attacks, 15 were Saudis, but what role (if any) did the Saudi government play in the scheme? While a small team of FBI agents has been trying to uncover the truth, other parts of the FBI are determined to keep possible Saudi connections secret. Why? President Trump’s not keen on something that might ‘imperil “good relations with Saudi Arabia.”‘ Will the families of those who died as a result of the attacks ever get closure?

Published: Jan 23, 2020
Length: 45 minutes (11,345 words)

Noah’s Rainbow – Raising children in an age of climate crisis

James S. Murray explores the start of a decade of consequences, and the stark difference between ghosts and ancestors.

Source: BusinessGreen
Published: Jan 9, 2020
Length: 23 minutes (5,875 words)

Like a Shovel and a Rope

“We had nothing to lose,” Cary Ann said. “Fuck it. Band. Family. Let’s give it a shot. . . . Handshake, spit on it. If it gets too nasty we’ll cut and run.”

Source: Oxford American
Published: Nov 19, 2019
Length: 32 minutes (8,147 words)

Meet the Boy Scouts of the Border Patrol

“If there’s something overtly theatrical, even campy, about these recruitment efforts, that isn’t a coincidence. The age-old children’s games of cowboys and Indians or cops and robbers have simply been harnessed for a modern, state-run, militarized equivalent: border guards and immigrants.”

Source: The Nation
Published: Jan 21, 2020
Length: 13 minutes (3,309 words)

The Prison Inside Prison

Decades with no personal contact, no way back into the general prison population, cut off from the possibility of parole — solitary confinement is an ongoing experiment in cruelty on human subjects.

Source: Texas Observer
Published: Jan 21, 2020
Length: 25 minutes (6,335 words)

Who Wants to Play the Status Game?

Hi, nice to meet you, are we playing the Importance Game or the Leveling Game? With a skilled player, it’s hard to tell one from the other.

Source: The Point
Published: Jan 16, 2020
Length: 6 minutes (1,549 words)

The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees

Sequoias can live for thousands of years, but a single bristlecone in California’s White Mountains can live indefinitely. This gnarled tree species will outlive humanity.

Author: Alex Ross
Source: The New Yorker
Published: Jan 13, 2020
Length: 24 minutes (6,244 words)

Throwaway Society: Rejecting a Life Consumed by Plastic

Japan is the second-biggest producer of plastic waste per capita, after the US. One journalist tries to spend a week without using single-use plastic and discovers how dependent Japan’s food system has become on disposable plastic.

Source: The Japan Times
Published: Jan 10, 2020
Length: 9 minutes (2,465 words)

Pistol In A Drawer

“The pistol has always been my private affair, a kind of secret lover, more seductive for being clandestine and dangerous. We have this thing, the pistol and I, and I don’t want to betray that.”

Published: Dec 1, 2019
Length: 13 minutes (3,423 words)

N.K. Jemisin’s Dream Worlds

In Raffi Khatchadourian’s New Yorker profile, N.K. Jemisin recounts the racism she witnessed as a child in Alabama in the ’80s, as well as racism — editorial and otherwise that she has lived through in her career.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Jan 20, 2020
Length: 26 minutes (6,746 words)