How ‘Creed’ Forever Changed the ‘Rocky’ Series

It’s come a long way since Apollo Creed died so Rocky Balboa could engage in character development.

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Nov 28, 2018
Length: 6 minutes (1,681 words)

‘Emerging’ as a Writer — After 40

A personal essay in which Jenny Bhatt recalls the rites of passage that led to her shift in identity from corporate executive to woman writer of color.

Source: Longreads
Published: Nov 28, 2018
Length: 19 minutes (4,950 words)

The Insect Apocalypse Is Here

Science is still trying to understand the sheer mass and variety of insects on earth. What’s clear is that both are declining at an alarming rate, and for that, the whole planet will suffer.

Published: Nov 27, 2018
Length: 29 minutes (7,431 words)

The Sainthood of Dave Matthews Has Been Indefinitely Postponed

“When I tell Seattle music critic Charles R. Cross that I’m writing about the Dave Matthews Band, he immediately quips, ‘Why? Did you lose a bet with your editor?’”

Source: Seattle Met
Published: Nov 27, 2018
Length: 15 minutes (3,805 words)

The Ghost of a Boy

After two breakups, a single mother starts building a sense of self that’s true to herself and not beholden to other people.

Published: Nov 26, 2018
Length: 16 minutes (4,112 words)

‘I Hereby Confess Judgement’

Small business owners across the U.S. are being driven into bankruptcy by usurious loans advanced by predatory lenders that are making a lot of other people very, very rich. It’s perfectly horrifying, and perfectly legal.

Published: Nov 20, 2018
Length: 17 minutes (4,422 words)

Alexa de Paris

Miles Marshall Lewis remembers a love of Prince and Paris.

Source: Longreads
Published: Nov 27, 2018
Length: 14 minutes (3,622 words)

The Cavernous World under the Woods

As Bruce Grierson reports in this fascinating piece, clear-cut logging has much deeper repercussions than simply denuding the land of trees — it also affects a critical underground ecosystem of dissolved rock called karst as well as the organisms that depend on it.

Source: Hakai Magazine
Published: Nov 20, 2018
Length: 21 minutes (5,400 words)

Missy Elliott’s “Supa Dupa Fly” Came From the Future

The second installment in The New Yorker‘s new interactive music series about individual works explores the way Elliott’s 1997 hit album reimagined hip-hop, R&B, videos, fashion, and black female identity, and why its futuristic vision continues to influence listeners.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Nov 20, 2018
Length: 6 minutes (1,711 words)

Trapped in the Fire Zone

They couldn’t get away from California’s Camp Fire fast enough. Now, they can’t leave.

Source: Slate
Published: Nov 20, 2018
Length: 13 minutes (3,495 words)