Welcome to the Witch Capital of Norway

Salem, Massachusetts sells its witch history very well, but Vardø, Norway has its eerie isolation and cold dark climate to sell its haunted past.

Source: The Outline
Published: Nov 19, 2018
Length: 7 minutes (1,815 words)

A Boundless Battlefield: What Happens When a Barrio 18 Soldier Tries to Leave the Gang

Gang members in El Salvador are considered ruined, beyond redemption. So what’s life like for a gang member who manages to get out?

Source: The Intercept
Published: Nov 17, 2018
Length: 25 minutes (6,436 words)

In Brazil, Animals Cross a Road of No Return

Highway BR-262 cuts through Brazil’s Pantanal, the world’s largest freshwater wetland. After studying the road for two decades, biologist Wagner Fischer can say with certainty that it’s one of the world’s deadliest roads for wildlife. “Ecologists are very worried,” Fischer said. “The authorities pretend to be worried.”

Published: Nov 12, 2018
Length: 5 minutes (1,383 words)

Battle Vest

Berry Grass examines the barriers we build around our true selves and the ones that others erect for us.

Source: Barrelhouse
Published: Nov 19, 2018
Length: 11 minutes (2,904 words)

Chardon, Ohio

Six years after a mass shooting at the local High School, Libby Copeland visits with survivors and observes various ways they live and cope with lasting trauma.

Source: Esquire
Published: Nov 18, 2018
Length: 24 minutes (6,115 words)

Eating to America

When Naz Riahi was 9, she escaped tragedy in Iran only to be confronted by a cruel new world in America. In this personal essay, she recalls how food became her solace and her tool for assimilating.

Author: Naz Riahi
Source: Longreads
Published: Nov 21, 2018
Length: 20 minutes (5,095 words)

Mystic Chords

Best known for his 1958 instrumental hit “Rumble,” guitarist Link Wray recorded a trio of underappreciated albums with his brothers in their family chicken shack in the early 1970s. They sound like nothing else in his sprawling rock catalogue.

Source: Oxford American
Published: Nov 1, 2018
Length: 32 minutes (8,115 words)

A Day in the Life of Lloyd Squires, Vermont’s Best Bagel Maker

He really loves bagels — you’d have to, to start work at 2:11AM every day. Spare him a thought the next time you enjoy an everything with scallion cream cheese.

Author: Evan Weiss
Published: Nov 20, 2018
Length: 9 minutes (2,268 words)

The Gatekeepers

“I feel as though I’ve built a career by capitalizing on black pain—exploiting that of others and monetizing my own. The dilemma is both personal and political. The guilt of my ambition is intertwined with the sense of a fruitless project.”

Published: Nov 20, 2018
Length: 16 minutes (4,048 words)

American Exorcism

“Why, in our modern age, are so many people turning to the Church for help in banishing incorporeal fiends from their body? And what does this resurgent interest tell us about the figurative demons tormenting contemporary society?”

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Nov 20, 2018
Length: 34 minutes (8,565 words)