Old Dudes on Skateboards

The death of his life-long skateboarding friend prompts Aaron Gilbreath to get back on his board — at 44, with his toddler daughter in tow.

Source: Longreads
Published: Oct 15, 2019
Length: 35 minutes (8,980 words)

Why You Never See Your Friends Anymore

From algorithms that set work schedules to the whims of the gig economy, too many workers are deprived of free time that overlaps with friends’ and family’s, and America’s social fabric is fraying. “A calendar is more than the organization of days and months,” Judith Shulevitz writes. “It’s the blueprint for a shared life.”

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Oct 10, 2019
Length: 9 minutes (2,338 words)

The FBI Lost Our Son

The FBI’s counterterrorism unit recruited Billy Reilly to infiltrate terror and criminal networks as a part-time confidential source. Part of a wave of workers recruited post-9/11, Billy did not receive the training, protections, or compensation of a full-time agent. After he went missing during an operation in Russia in 2015, no one inside the FBI would take responsibility.

Published: Oct 11, 2019
Length: 30 minutes (7,680 words)

In the Rush to Harvest Body Parts, Death Investigations Have Been Upended

Organ procurement companies can harvest body parts before medical examiners have a chance to examine a dead body and rule on a cause of death. Does that seem problematic? Yes, yes it does.

Published: Oct 13, 2019
Length: 18 minutes (4,500 words)

Las Marthas

Society of Martha Washington Colonial Pageant in Laredo, Texas, is a debutante ball featuring teenagers in multi-thousand-dollar Martha Washington cosplay. Mostly Mexican teenagers. But it wasn’t always that way — towns shift, and so do identities.

Source: The Believer
Published: Oct 1, 2019
Length: 41 minutes (10,423 words)

Happiness is Fleeting

Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell recalls learning about life’s cycles of hope and disappointment from The Peanuts.

Source: Longreads
Published: Oct 15, 2019
Length: 13 minutes (3,277 words)

Ronan Farrow Depicts a Chilling Cover-up at NBC

Rebecca Traister reads Ronan Farrow’s new book, Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators, and realizes that those at NBC who colluded to obstruct Farrow’s ground-breaking reporting on Harvey Weinstein remain in charge.

Source: The Cut
Published: Oct 11, 2019
Length: 10 minutes (2,670 words)

The Dangerously Cheesy Collectible Cheetos Market

A cheese snack shaped like a bald eagle perched on a branch? That will cost you $849.99.

Source: The Outline
Published: Oct 9, 2019
Length: 9 minutes (2,371 words)

I Had To Leave My Mother So I Could Survive

Elisabet Velasquez reckons with a lifetime of disharmony with her religious, mentally ill mother.

Source: Longreads
Published: Oct 14, 2019
Length: 11 minutes (2,943 words)

Dispatch from Puerto Nowhere

Robert Lopez examines what it means to be an assimilated American from Puerto Rico, and what was gained and lost in the process.

Source: Longreads
Published: Oct 11, 2019
Length: 24 minutes (6,239 words)