The Cartel Next Door

Inside the $1 million plot to execute—in broad daylight—the attorney of a Mexican cartel boss, and the subsequent investigation, which ranged from south of the border to Florida and Texas, to solve the murder.

Source: Texas Monthly
Published: Sep 21, 2018
Length: 32 minutes (8,038 words)

XXL’s A Great Day in Hip Hop: 16 Years Later

Actually, twenty years have now passed since the legendary Gordon Parks photographed 177 hip-hop artists and collaborators in a single image in Harlem. It was a once-in-a-lifetime gathering. People are still talking about it. To celebrate the anniversary, here’s the story of what it was like from someone who was there.

Published: Sep 29, 2014
Length: 7 minutes (1,775 words)

A Birth Plan for Dying

In this personal essay, Hanna Neuschwander grapples with ending a wanted pregnancy, and finds that “right” or “wrong” fail to describe the moral reckoning.

Source: Longreads
Published: Sep 28, 2018
Length: 18 minutes (4,587 words)

‘The Soul as a Picture Gallery’: Mid-Century African-American Portraits

A show currently on exhibit at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art highlights mid-twentieth-century African-American photographs.

Published: Sep 22, 2018
Length: 6 minutes (1,664 words)

Outkast’s ‘Aquemini,’ The Blueprint of the Southern Black Renaissance, Turns 20

“Aquemini, celebrating its 20th anniversary, is a blessing of an album that stands tall among the best bodies of work music has ever seen. It rests at the pinnacle of creativity, execution and emotion.”

Source: The Undefeated
Published: Sep 27, 2018
Length: 9 minutes (2,449 words)

How Many Women Have To Bleed?

Deadspin senior editor Diana Moskovitz has been one of the few reporters to cover not only both of Bill Cosby’s trials but also his conviction and sentencing, in which Cosby will spend upwards of ten years in state prison for sexual assault. She describes in vivid detail the exhaustion and public suffering still exacted on women, even during the #MeToo era.

Source: Jezebel
Published: Sep 26, 2018
Length: 6 minutes (1,573 words)

Queens of Infamy: The Rise of Catherine De’ Medici

Kings and popes thought she was their pawn. The Merchant’s Daughter begged to differ.

Source: Longreads
Published: Sep 27, 2018
Length: 18 minutes (4,588 words)

The Child Abuse Contrarian

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a rare condition that may cause injuries that mimic child abuse. What are the chances that 100% of the allegedly abused children Dr. Michael Horlick sees have it?

Source: ProPublica
Published: Sep 26, 2018
Length: 31 minutes (7,810 words)

46 Years Ago, I Left Yale for J.D. Salinger — This Fall, I’m Returning

A personal essay in which author Joyce Maynard writes about finally returning to Yale this fall, at 64, to complete her Bachelor’s degree. Maynard had dropped out at 18 in 1971, following her freshman year, after which she went to live with a much older J.D. Salinger.

Source: Vogue
Published: Sep 13, 2018
Length: 6 minutes (1,615 words)

Gary Keith and Ron, the Magi of Mets Nation

Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez, and Ron Darling — the broadcast trio for “baseball’s unwanted stepchildren,” the Mets — salvage yet another hopeless season in the booth by improvising around the part where “the Mets haven’t played a meaningful game in months.”

Published: Sep 25, 2018
Length: 19 minutes (4,759 words)