How Reporters for Niche Publications Conquered Capitol Hill

Shifts in media, including the loss of Washington bureaus, have changed the composition of Washington D.C. reporting. Now the trade press outnumbers the mainstream press. It’s good for trade reporters, but is it good for readers?

Published: Aug 27, 2019
Length: 4 minutes (1,121 words)

Strike With the Band

“Classical musicianship is better understood as a job, a shitty job.”

Source: The Baffler
Published: Sep 3, 2019
Length: 15 minutes (3,772 words)

Anaphylaxis of the Mind

A personal essay in which Alyson Pomerantz reframes her understanding of illness when an allergic reaction turns out to be something else.

Source: Longreads
Published: Sep 3, 2019
Length: 21 minutes (5,316 words)

On the Job, 24 Hours a Day, 7 Days a Week

“They are taking care of people with very complex needs, people who have multiple chronic conditions, who may have all kinds of varied living environments. A lot of the families are really dysfunctional and the aides have to deal with that, too. And they’re getting paid chump change, and it’s a travesty.”

Published: Sep 2, 2019
Length: 13 minutes (3,433 words)

How to Really Listen to Music

What happens when we pay music closer attention, rather than treat it like background noise to zone out to? And how do laypeople approach things like rhythm and tone?

Published: Aug 22, 2019
Length: 5 minutes (1,349 words)

Sold Back Into Slavery, She Sued for Restitution — and Won

Morgan Jerkins tells the story of Henrietta Wood — a woman sold back into slavery after being freed — who in 1878 was awarded $2,500, the largest known sum of restitution for enslavement by a United States court.

Source: Zora
Published: Aug 26, 2019
Length: 7 minutes (1,905 words)

The Tragedy on Howse Peak

In April, celebrated alpinists alpinists David Lama, Jess Roskelley, and Hansjörg Auer died in an avalanche on Mount Howse — a terrible and unpredictable but known risk of the sport. How do participants in a sport where death is a semi-regular occurrence  cope?

Author: Nick Heil
Source: Outside
Published: Aug 28, 2019
Length: 21 minutes (5,286 words)

Two Sisters and the Terrorist Who Came Between Them (Part II)

Lori Sally’s sister Sam moved to Syria to live under ISIS. Can she ever forgive her?

Source: Elle
Published: Aug 27, 2019
Length: 17 minutes (4,300 words)

Two Sisters and the Terrorist Who Came Between Them (Part I)

How does a woman from Arkansas, a woman who used to wear makeup and take selfies and wear flip-flops, end up dragged across the border into a war zone by her fun-loving husband? How do you grow up in the United States of America, surrounded by Walmarts and happy hours and swimming holes, and end up living in Syria under a terrorist group?

Source: Elle
Published: Aug 27, 2019
Length: 26 minutes (6,500 words)

Cop Diary

“The transformation from citizen to prisoner is terrible to behold, regardless of its justice. Unlike my sister the teacher or my brother the lawyer, I take prisoners, and to exercise that authority is to invoke a profound social trust.”

Published: Aug 30, 2019
Length: 33 minutes (8,419 words)