Down the Rabbit Hole I Go

Twenty-three-year-old Indiana native Tomi Masters had only set out to work in California’s cannabis industry, so how did she end up dead in a Manila river?

Source: BuzzFeed
Published: Feb 5, 2019
Length: 30 minutes (7,617 words)

The Five Families of Feces

A look at the cutthroat porta-potty business in New York City, which is surprisingly filled with all kinds of dirty drama.

Published: Feb 6, 2019
Length: 14 minutes (3,575 words)

Years of Warnings, Then Death and Disaster

“The men and women of the Navy deserve better.”

Source: ProPublica
Published: Feb 7, 2019
Length: 32 minutes (8,140 words)

My Life at 47 Is Back to What It Was Like at 27

“I’m talking about my situational set point, the version of myself that inevitably swings back into the foreground even if I’ve managed to pretend to be another kind of person for a period of time.”

Source: Medium
Published: Feb 6, 2019
Length: 12 minutes (3,060 words)

O, Small-Bany! Part 3: Winter

The third installment of Elisa Albert’s seasonal quartet of essays about life in a small upstate, New York town.

Source: Longreads
Published: Feb 7, 2019
Length: 17 minutes (4,343 words)

If San Francisco is so great, why is everyone I love leaving?

Currently in the Bay Area, there are two migrations: one of young people in tech moving to San Francisco, ready to disrupt; and another of young people with other dreams — the artists, teachers, blacksmiths, therapists, mechanics, musicians — who leave because there’s no longer a place for them anymore.

Published: Jan 30, 2019
Length: 12 minutes (3,197 words)

Whose Facade Is It, Anyway?

These days, whether you like it or not, your photogenic home may be a backdrop for tourists’ photoshoots. But posing in front of pretty facades, a practice perfected by travel influencers on Instagram, brings up issues of privacy and etiquette.

Source: Curbed
Published: Feb 6, 2019
Length: 14 minutes (3,519 words)

Easy Targets

Most gun stores face no legal requirements to secure the weapons they sell. This sets them apart from other businesses that deal in dangerous products, such as pharmacies and explosives makers. Thieves have taken notice.

Tracking stolen firearms through the black market, from gun-store thefts to crime scenes.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Feb 7, 2019
Length: 14 minutes (3,500 words)

Mr. Chen’s Mountain

“The story of a Chinese billionaire who moved back home, setting his mansion down in the middle of his economically depressed ancestral village.”

Published: Feb 4, 2019
Length: 25 minutes (6,283 words)

‘I couldn’t deal with it, it tore me apart’: surviving child sexual abuse

Tom Yarwood was assaulted by his musical mentor, an unnamed celebrated conductor, more than 20 times over the course of three years. Thirty years later, telling the story hasn’t become any easier.

Source: The Guardian
Published: Feb 1, 2019
Length: 16 minutes (4,014 words)