Who Is John Frum?

In the 20th century, anthropologists fell over themselves to study the “cargo cult” phenomenon in the South Pacific. But was it really a new religion—or just a Western fantasy?

Source: Topic
Published: Apr 18, 2019
Length: 24 minutes (6,200 words)

The Metrics of Backpacks

Optimization can’t be all there is to life, can it? On data, and backpacks, and technology, and gender, and messy personhood.

Source: Art Practical
Published: Apr 3, 2019
Length: 16 minutes (4,130 words)

Selfie Deaths Are an Epidemic

Recklessness, or natural evolution of an age-old impulse? “Th[e] impulse to fashion our image publicly has only increased in the digital age—which means it’s that much harder to get noticed.”

Source: Outside
Published: Apr 16, 2019
Length: 14 minutes (3,520 words)

How a Tiny Endangered Species Put a Man In Prison

In Death Valley National Park lies Devils Hole: an aquifer-fed pool home to one of the rarest fish species in the world — the Devils Hole pupfish. The pupfish has been the center of controversy between conservationists dedicated to protecting the inch-long fish species and Nevadans who believe the fish isn’t worth sacrificing their right to pump water on their land. Trent Sargent learned about how well the pupfish is protected the hard way.

Published: Apr 15, 2019
Length: 20 minutes (5,199 words)

Leave No Trace

One Australian examines her life and Australia’s history, wondering whether her country’s fixation on stories of missing children, particularly missing females, is simply its way to avoid confronting its colonial origins, where indigenous Australians were treated as invisible.

Source: The Believer
Published: Apr 1, 2019
Length: 38 minutes (9,601 words)

The Rise of the Mom-Shaming Resistance

Molly Langmuir, a staff writer for Elle, explores the wholly American concept of mom-shaming, along with the rise Unicorn Moms, the mom-shaming resistance that sparked in California and has since spread nationwide.

Source: Elle
Published: Mar 26, 2019
Length: 14 minutes (3,574 words)

Surviving False Dawns: On Joy Division and Life in a Far Distant Suburb

Growing up in what she calls “the bleak Sydney suburbs,” a depressed Australian teenager finds solace in Joy Division and her fellow music fans, which led her to the literature that shaped her as an adult ─ an adult for whom Joy Division and uncertainty continue to define her.

Source: LitHub
Published: Apr 12, 2019
Length: 9 minutes (2,472 words)

The Legend of Keanu Reeves

Every generation gets its own Keanu Reeves, except every generation’s Keanu Reeves is this Keanu Reeves. Alex Pappademas attempts to separate the man from the myth.

Source: GQ
Published: Apr 15, 2019
Length: 23 minutes (5,800 words)

Lost at Sea

“A few miles north of San Francisco, off the coast of Sausalito, is Richardson Bay, a saltwater estuary where roughly one hundred people live out of sight from the world. Known as anchor-outs, they make their homes a quarter mile from the shore, on abandoned and unseaworthy vessels, doing their best, with little or no money, to survive.”

Author: Joe Kloc
Published: Apr 11, 2019
Length: 25 minutes (6,326 words)

A Sprawling Birthday Celebration for R.E.M.’s ‘Reckoning’

Breaking down the band’s 1984 masterpiece track-by-track, and talking about its magic with some of the band’s collaborators.

Source: The Ringer
Published: Apr 9, 2019
Length: 23 minutes (5,924 words)