What It’s Actually Like to Be on House Hunters—Twice

“In several of the outtakes, I mistakenly opened a closet, only to remember it was full of my clothing.” Spoiler alert: if you’re holding onto hope that the scenarios in House Hunters are real, this may squash that. 

Source: Slate
Published: Jun 20, 2019
Length: 7 minutes (1,960 words)

The Optics of Opportunity

Hafizah Geter sets the record straight on outrageous displays of racism and white privilege in a literary fellowship she took part in, after The New Yorker frames the story “as a quirky tale of wealth and nepotism.”

Source: Gay Magazine
Published: Jun 19, 2019
Length: 11 minutes (2,989 words)

Are Your Tinned Tomatoes Picked By Slave Labor?

Italian farmers get 7.5 cents for a kilo of tomatoes. Consumers pay €2, for a 2,567% markup. It’s a mafia-ridden system that can’t exist without exploiting immigrant labor. “In accepting these industrial prices, we’re actually selling the skin of the farm-workers.”

Source: The Guardian
Published: Jun 20, 2019
Length: 38 minutes (9,504 words)

How I Became ‘Rich’

During a rare opportunity to vacation in Hawai’i, Stacy Torres is forced to confront her status as better off than where she came from.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jun 20, 2019
Length: 10 minutes (2,629 words)

The Best Abortion Ever

“It lasted about ten seconds. I was just about to say, ‘This really hurts,’ when, suddenly, it didn’t hurt anymore, and the doctor was snapping off her gloves.”

Source: The Cut
Published: Jun 19, 2019
Length: 9 minutes (2,277 words)

The Oral History of Serious Eats

In the early days of food blogging, these food nerds’ ambitious experiment helped shape how online food journalism could look, but the struggle for financial stability, editorial integrity, sleep, and work-life balance was never ending.

Source: Grubstreet
Published: Jun 18, 2019
Length: 15 minutes (3,757 words)

Bodies In Seats

“At Facebook’s worst-performing content moderation site in North America, one contractor has died, and others say they fear for their lives.” (Content warning: this article and the accompanying video describe harm to children and animals in detail.)

Source: The Verge
Published: Jun 19, 2019
Length: 26 minutes (6,712 words)

The Judge and the Three-Strikes Convict

Washington state’s three-strikes law put alcoholic and drug addict Scott Wharton in jail for life, no possibility of parole, for a string of low-level bank robberies. Ex-judge Matthew Fox helped him get clemency — twice. Now Wharton’s back in jail. How many chances will the state give him?

Published: Jun 17, 2019
Length: 32 minutes (8,045 words)

Going Overboard

“I didn’t expect that spending a few days with a couple thousand lesbians on a floating hotel/casino/mall/amusement park would push me to radically reconsider the future I’d been carefully and painstakingly planning for myself.”

Source: BuzzFeed
Published: Jun 18, 2019
Length: 45 minutes (11,271 words)

Elizabeth Warren Is Completely Serious

A leading Democratic candidate for President, Elizabeth Warren has serious plans to tackle income equality, corporate power, and a range of other issues working class Americans face today.

Published: Jun 17, 2019
Length: 33 minutes (8,473 words)