The Creeping Capitalist Takeover of Higher Education

Universities had the chance to make higher education accessible to more students by making the price of online degrees affordable. But they didn’t.

Published: Apr 1, 2019
Length: 30 minutes (7,729 words)

The Women Who Nod At Death And Say Let’s Go

For nearly a century, America’s major rodeos haven’t offered women’s bronc riding events. Daryl and Michelle McElroy, of The Texas Bronc Riders Association, are helping a group of talented riders change all that.

Source: Deadspin
Published: Apr 1, 2019
Length: 23 minutes (5,776 words)

What Was the Washington Post Afraid Of?

Irin Carmon and Amy Brittain were on the verge of publishing an investigation looking into sexual misconduct allegations against a powerful executive at CBS. But the Washington Post decided not to run the story. Carmon looks back at how an important story was killed.

Published: Apr 1, 2019
Length: 18 minutes (4,735 words)

Honey Bees, Worker Bees, and the Economic Violence of Land Grabs

In this collaboration with Economic Hardship Reporting Project, Melissa Chadburn challenges her own belief that environmental justice issues are reserved for people of privilege.

Source: Longreads
Published: Apr 1, 2019
Length: 12 minutes (3,024 words)

What It’s Like to Grow Up With More Money Than You’ll Ever Spend

An interview with filmmaker, activist and heiress Abigail Disney, in which she speaks very frankly about how inheriting a fortune can compromise one’s moral compass and corrupt the soul.

Source: The Cut
Published: Mar 28, 2019
Length: 10 minutes (2,544 words)

The Challenge of Going Off Psychiatric Drugs

Getting a prescription for a psychiatric drug is pretty easy. Hell, getting prescriptions for multiple psychiatric drugs is pretty easy. Understanding where you stop and the drugs start, and getting off of them when they’re not actually serving you — that’s the hard part.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Apr 1, 2019
Length: 40 minutes (10,024 words)

Commonwealth v. Mohamed

“The evidence shows that if this were Jimmy Smith from Georgetown, not Mohamed Abdallah, who got in an accident with the Samses, we would not be here today.”

Source: The Atavist
Published: Mar 31, 2019
Length: 43 minutes (10,771 words)

Camera Above the Classroom

Hoping to use AI to boost its education system, China’s government has installed facial recognition technology in pilot schools to monitor its students in the classroom.

Author: Yujie Xue
Source: The Disconnect
Published: Mar 26, 2019
Length: 24 minutes (6,075 words)

A Clever New Strategy for Treating Cancer, Thanks to Darwin

Robert Gatenby, a radiologist in Tampa, Florida, is rethinking cancer as a chronic illness: studying the link between cancer and Darwin’s principles and finding a way to “outsmart it rather than carpet-bomb it.”

Source: Wired
Published: Mar 25, 2019
Length: 20 minutes (5,042 words)

The amateur sleuth who searched for a body — and found one

A car wreck found at the bottom of Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota brought the search for a missing young mother, Olivia Lone Bear, to an end. But the discovery was made not by the police, but a mostly-female volunteer team of indigenous sleuths and activists led by Lissa Yellowbird-Chase.

Source: BBC
Published: Mar 25, 2019
Length: 25 minutes (6,499 words)