The Baron of Botox Is Gone, But His Face Lives On

A profile of late celebrity face master Dr. Fredric Brandt, who revolutionized cosmetic dermatology with the use of Botox and fillers, before dying by suicide in 2015.

Source: GEN
Published: Jan 14, 2020
Length: 15 minutes (3,970 words)

William Gibson: ‘I was losing a sense of how weird the real world was’

William Gibson talks to Sam Leith at the Guardian about how he got into writing science fiction, how his breakout novel Neuromancer was possible because he knew nothing about computers, the subtle, yet striking similarities that make London and Toyko great settings for his work, and the fact that even in science fiction, you’re lost without your phone charger.

Author: Sam Leith
Source: The Guardian
Published: Jan 11, 2020
Length: 12 minutes (3,120 words)

Searching Sephora for an Antidote to Aging — and Grief

Five years after her mother’s death, while still grieving and suddenly middle-aged, Abby Mims’ turns to beauty products to cure what ails her.

Author: Abby Mims
Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 14, 2020
Length: 11 minutes (2,959 words)

How I Confronted the Truth About My Fraternity’s Racist History

Only after Charlottsville did one man stop shrugging away his fraternity’s 130 years worth of racist values and activities, and finally reconcile with his own culpability.

Source: Medium
Published: Jan 6, 2020
Length: 9 minutes (2,468 words)

My Father, the Atomic Bomb

When one writer took a close look at her life, she found all roads, from her identity as a writer to her life with one parent, trace directly back to her father’s deadly profession.

Published: Sep 6, 2019
Length: 25 minutes (6,256 words)

When a Psychic Reading Costs You $740,000

There’s a cat and mouse game between psychics who scam people out of their life savings and the investigator who pursues them. But the true psychics already saw that coming.

Source: GQ
Published: Jan 9, 2020
Length: 21 minutes (5,401 words)

The Price of Dominionist Theology

After leaving fundamentalism, Eve Ettinger grapples with the loaded theological heritage of evangelical personal finance teachings.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 10, 2020
Length: 17 minutes (4,367 words)

Translating a Person

“Who do we become when we inhabit another language?”

Source: The Believer
Published: Dec 2, 2019
Length: 24 minutes (6,172 words)

Lived in Bars

Helena Fitzgerald wonders whether she can still enjoy herself and the easy camaraderie she finds in the dark, cozy dive-bars bars she loves — without drinking alcohol.

Published: Jan 9, 2020
Length: 8 minutes (2,224 words)

Think Debtors Prisons Are a Thing of the Past? Not in Mississippi.

How the state’s “restitution program” forces poor people to work off small debts.

Published: Jan 9, 2020
Length: 11 minutes (2,770 words)