Riding the Highs and Lows with My Mom

Valentina Valentini’s life-long role-reversal with her mother gets up-ended one psychedelic night in the Hollywood Hills, giving her the chance to become the daughter, once again.

Source: Longreads
Published: Aug 21, 2019
Length: 16 minutes (4,092 words)

The Cult of Columbine: How an Obsession With School Shooters Led to a Murder Plot

“Put simply, the world of violent crime is masculine, at least statistically. But the consumers of crime stories are decidedly female. Women make up the majority of the readers of true-crime books and the listeners of true-crime podcasts. Women are not just passively consuming these stories; they are also finding ways to participate in them.”

Source: The Guardian
Published: Aug 20, 2019
Length: 19 minutes (4,797 words)

Looking for Carolina Maria de Jesus

For a brief period in the 1960s, the Afro-Brazilian author of the memoir “Child of the Dark” was one of the most well-known writers in the world.

Source: Longreads
Published: Aug 20, 2019
Length: 18 minutes (4,506 words)

Why I Printed My Facebook

“I needed to convert my Facebook into something like a physical book, flip through its pages, prop open a window with it, and feel its weight in my hands. All of this would prove difficult, I later learned, because my Facebook was more than 10,000 pages long.”

Source: Slate
Published: Aug 19, 2019
Length: 7 minutes (1,928 words)

Neil Young’s Lonely Quest to Save Music

“It’s strange to imagine that Young might be a prophet of sorts — but maybe not. His lesson is that everything human is shot through with imperfection. Filtering that out doesn’t make us more perfect; it is making us sick. He’s a great artist, which means that he sees and hears more, which may make him a loon, but is also why he is still worth listening to.”

Published: Aug 20, 2019
Length: 28 minutes (7,000 words)

Chasing Waves on Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way

Despite fickle conditions, Ireland offers powerful waves on empty beaches, if you come at the right time.

Published: Aug 12, 2019
Length: 10 minutes (2,698 words)

In the Straits: The Story of the Inmate Turned Millionaire Turned Lone Survivor

“He was a convicted felon who found a niche in Seattle’s construction boom. As the region’s fortunes rose and fell—and rose again—so did his. Then a fatal boating accident came for Michael Powers’s fairy-tale ending.”

Source: Seattle Met
Published: Aug 19, 2019
Length: 27 minutes (6,840 words)

Life on Thin Ice

“Greenland’s melting has been adopted by the world as its own problem. But for the islanders grieving their dissolving world, the crisis is personal, and dangerous.”

Source: The Guardian
Published: Aug 12, 2019
Length: 15 minutes (3,816 words)

The Californication of America’s Restaurants

Creating a clean, bright, supposedly “Californian” interior can create a transportive dining experience, but the aesthetic many restaurants are offering lacks the complexity and depth that now define California cuisine.

Source: Eater
Published: Aug 15, 2019
Length: 9 minutes (2,416 words)

Conversations with My Loveliest

A personal essay in which Melissa Berman recalls what was said, and not said, between her and her beloved aunt as they approached her final year.

Source: Longreads
Published: Aug 19, 2019
Length: 9 minutes (2,413 words)