The Last of Its Kind

The 14-year-old Achatinella apexfulva snail named George was the sole surviving member of its species. It was biologist David Sischo’s job to take care of George until it died, even as his team works to save other Hawaiian snails from extinction.

Author: Ed Yong
Source: The Atlantic
Published: Jul 1, 2019
Length: 10 minutes (2,588 words)

“Your Judge Is Your Destiny”

“The judge keeps a low public profile, but among attorneys in Louisiana, her reputation is feared. According to data from the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees our nation’s immigration courts, Judge Reese has presided over more than 200 asylum hearings during the past five years. The applicants who have stood before her have come from all across the globe: Somalia, Eritrea, Mexico, Cameroon, Honduras. Some have lawyers, some do not; it makes little difference. Unique among her peers, during the past five years, Reese has rejected every single case.”

Source: Topic
Published: Jul 6, 2019
Length: 23 minutes (5,933 words)

Holding the Pain

Amye Archer explores her own relationship with the shooting at Sandy Hook as she works with survivors to tell their stories.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jul 8, 2019
Length: 13 minutes (3,422 words)

Love isn’t what it was

Love, in the world of Walt Disney films, has changed. Happy endings are no longer sealed with a kiss and the goal of heterosexual romance has been replaced by a new ideal: family love. Sophus Helle explores this twist in the Disney tale.

Source: Aeon
Published: Jun 12, 2019
Length: 14 minutes (3,500 words)

The Nonprofit Hospital That Makes Millions, Owns a Collection Agency and Relentlessly Sues the Poor

In partnership with MLK50, ProPublica investigates a nonprofit hospital system’s aggressive debt collection practices with poor patients: “Its own employees are no exception. Since 2014, Methodist has sued dozens of its workers for unpaid medical bills, including a hospital housekeeper sued in 2017 for more than $23,000. That year, she told the court, she made $16,000. She’s in a court-ordered payment plan, but in the case of more than 70 other employees, Methodist has garnished the wages it pays them to recoup its medical charges.”

Source: ProPublica
Published: Jun 27, 2019
Length: 26 minutes (6,630 words)

The Women Who Knew Too Much

As Niela Orr looks at Black women characters in horror films like “Us,” “Ghost,” “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane,” and “Scream,” she uncovers a throughline: “Black women have been humiliated and punished, in horror cinema as in life, for our incisiveness, for wondering aloud, for trying to get some answers.”

Author: Niela Orr
Source: The Baffler
Published: Jul 2, 2019
Length: 15 minutes (3,905 words)

The Great Model Train Robbery

Although much less popular than in years past, model trains are still highly sought after collectibles. Is that why someone robbed Kent, England’s Gravesend Model Marine & Engineering Society of theirs?

Published: Jun 28, 2019
Length: 14 minutes (3,596 words)

An 14-Year Neighborhood Feud Involved Restraining Orders, Spells, and Jail Time

In Miami, a long-standing feud with his neighbor — a top-level cop with a history of making false accusations against people — leads graphic designer Mark Cantor to several wrongful arrests, expensive litigation, unsatisfying exoneration, and an ongoing civil suit.

Source: Miami New Times
Published: Jul 2, 2019
Length: 45 minutes (11,317 words)

Smoking Cigarettes Saved My Life

Turning one’s lived experience into fiction can be a very fruitful exercise, leading the story far from its factual origins, but the need for readers to identify the bits of the author’s real life misses the way fiction can reveal larger truths.

Published: Jun 28, 2019
Length: 8 minutes (2,020 words)

A Crime By Any Name

The Trump administration’s commitment to deterring immigration through cruelty has made horrifying conditions in detention facilities inevitable.

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Jul 3, 2019
Length: 13 minutes (3,400 words)