These Sheriffs Release Sick Inmates to Avoid Paying Their Hospital Bills

It’s not only cruel, it draws into question what incarceration is for.

Source: ProPublica
Published: Sep 30, 2019
Length: 17 minutes (4,438 words)

He Never Intended To Become A Political Dissident, But Then He Started Beating Up Tai Chi Masters

He’s a so-so MMA fighter with political views that are moderate at best. But since he’s outspoken on the internet — most recently, about Hong Kong — he’s become one of China’s best-known dissidents.

Source: Deadspin
Published: Oct 3, 2019
Length: 14 minutes (3,596 words)

Malfunctioning Sex Robot

I was hired as an assassin. You don’t bring in a 37-year-old woman to review John Updike in the year of our Lord 2019 unless you’re hoping to see blood on the ceiling.” It’s all uphill (or downhill?) from this perfect lede.

Published: Oct 4, 2019
Length: 26 minutes (6,742 words)

How to Survive a Vivisection

After a traumatic experience with childbirth, Rachel Somerstein struggles to bond with her newborn daughter.

Source: Longreads
Published: Oct 7, 2019
Length: 11 minutes (2,917 words)

The (Loud) Soundtrack to My Struggle with Faith

After being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Anna Gazmarian grapples with her evangelical upbringing, and finds solace in screamo music.

Source: Longreads
Published: Oct 4, 2019
Length: 13 minutes (3,334 words)

The Internet Is Overrun With Images of Child Sexual Abuse. What Went Wrong?

“Last year, tech companies reported over 45 million online photos and videos of children being sexually abused — more than double what they found the previous year… Online predators create and share the illegal material, which is increasingly cloaked by technology. Tech companies, the government, and the authorities are no match.”

Content Note: “Articles in this series examine the explosion in online photos and videos of children being sexually abused. They include graphic descriptions of some instances of the abuse.”

Published: Sep 28, 2019
Length: 21 minutes (5,381 words)

“She’s missing. I’m not going to quit her.”

The long, loving search for Betsy, bovine escape artist.

Author: Clio Chang
Published: Oct 3, 2019
Length: 9 minutes (2,400 words)

Place: The Loop, Houston

“Houstonians call I-610 the Loop. It divides the city into two parts: inside the Loop and outside the Loop. The city circumference is marked by Beltway 8, the last buffer before you hit the suburbs. When I was a kid, I lived a neighborhood cluster beyond Beltway 8, west of the city. If you want to picture what that looked like, imagine absolutely nothing at all. Then add some rice fields and some football fields and an H-E-B. Your typical Southern suburban Americana. Still, this was Houston, so there was some semblance of diversity. Even a few decades ago, my family could find just about everything we were looking for (beef patties, black barbers, family friends) outside the city’s inner core.”

Source: The Believer
Published: Oct 1, 2019
Length: 4 minutes (1,147 words)

Abandoning a Cat

Haruki Murakami reflects on the surprising parallels between his life and the life of his father: “All we can do is breathe the air of the period we live in, carry with us the special burdens of the time, and grow up within those confines. That’s just how things are….We live our lives this way: viewing things that came about through accident and happenstance as the sole possible reality.”

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Sep 30, 2019
Length: 24 minutes (6,098 words)

The Murder of Jamal Khashoggi

“One year ago the journalist Jamal Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and never walked out….We’re retelling it because Jamal Khashoggi’s story should be heard in full. And because even if you think you know what happened, you may not know how or why.”

Published: Oct 1, 2019
Length: 43 minutes (10,944 words)