Naked in Japan

When one woman visits a Japanese bathhouse, she confronts the way childhood surgery shaped her perceptions of nudity, her beauty, and herself as a woman.

Source: The Rumpus
Published: Oct 16, 2018
Length: 9 minutes (2,342 words)

Your Real Biological Clock Is You’re Going to Die

At 47, Tom Scocca realizes most of us are living under the illusion that we have unlimited time, and are free plot out the different phases of our lives to our liking. He crunches some numbers and comes to the conclusion that sooner or later — and who knows which it will be — every one of us is a goner.

Author: Tom Scocca
Source: Hmm Daily
Published: Oct 18, 2018
Length: 6 minutes (1,576 words)

A Woman Becomes a Nightingale

An illustrated essay in which Carolita Johnson reviews the ugly history of rape being weaponized — and politicized — as a means of silencing women.

Source: Longreads
Published: Oct 19, 2018
Length: 7 minutes (1,969 words)

How a Booming City Can Be More Equitable

At a time when many U.S. cities are being revitalized — and rapidly gentrified — Barry Yeoman spotlights Durham, North Carolina, his home of 30 years, where activism, diversity- and egalitarianism-minded non-profits, and a community land trust are helping to keep the city inclusive and affordable for those who often get marginalized and pushed out instead.

Source: CityLab
Published: Oct 15, 2018
Length: 17 minutes (4,395 words)

Inside the Mind of a Voyeur

“Pete Forde was a good landlord and a great friend, or so his tenants thought. Then they discovered he was filming them in their most private moments.”

Source: Toronto Life
Published: Oct 17, 2018
Length: 22 minutes (5,615 words)

The Great Rikers Island Art Heist

Stained, neglected, nearly thrown away, a million-dollar Salvador Dalí painting spent forty years hanging around the Riker’s jail complex until someone decided to steal it.

Source: Esquire
Published: Oct 11, 2018
Length: 16 minutes (4,035 words)

Animal Attraction: The Ridiculous Realism of Bachelor in Paradise

To the ever-growing list of “reality TV tropes,” we can now add “confessing feelings to disinterested animals who happen to wander on-camera.”

Published: Oct 4, 2018
Length: 7 minutes (1,900 words)

Sex, Drugs and Mojitos: The Coffee Shop Story

Pot brownies, sex in the bathroom, celebrities in the VIP section, rapping wait staff — Coffee Shop had it all, and it was actually more of a bar-diner than coffee shop. It was also a family. As famous for its employees’ beautiful faces as for its food, this New York institution is closing this month, and people are ready to tell its inside story.

Source: Punch
Published: Oct 11, 2018
Length: 8 minutes (2,243 words)

The Love Story that Upended the Texas Prison System

How Frances Jalet, one of the first women to graduate from Columbia Law School, and Fred Cruz, the first inmate to write a lawsuit on toilet paper that went all the way to the Supreme Court, teamed up to take on the Texas Department of Corrections for unconstitutional punishments and brutality.

Source: Texas Monthly
Published: Oct 11, 2018
Length: 66 minutes (16,500 words)

The FBI of the National Park Service

“There’s a pervasive idea that crime doesn’t happen in our national parks, that these bucolic monuments to nature inspire visitors to be more noble, law-abiding versions of themselves. But parks are filled with people, and people commit crimes.” Enter the little-known Investigative Services Branch (ISB).

Source: Outside
Published: Oct 16, 2018
Length: 22 minutes (5,548 words)