Meet the Ultra-Organized Teenager Masterminding Parkland’s Midterms Push

Since Valentine’s Day, the Parkland survivors have been speaking at high schools and colleges to educate students about and win their support for ending gun violence. Mandatory at every event? A table at which attendees can either register to vote or pre-register to vote if they are currently under age.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Sep 5, 2018
Length: 28 minutes (7,061 words)

Weigh the Costs — and Occasional Benefits — of Ethnic Ambiguity

In this personal essay, Aram Mrjoian reflects on his experiences of being part Armenian in America.

Source: Longreads
Published: Sep 11, 2018
Length: 15 minutes (3,949 words)

Welcome to SuperShe Island, Where Men Are Banned and Flowers Are Dinner

Sisters! Tired of heeding your “mammal-brain instinct”? Ready to find your inner light on an Instagram-perfect, man-free, dry island in Finland doing yoga to Drake and eating almost nothing? For the small, small fee of nearly five thousand dollars, you too can apply to become a SuperShe.

Source: Observer
Published: Sep 7, 2018
Length: 16 minutes (4,229 words)

Musical Pleasures

Human beings have savored listening to music for centuries, but the mechanisms behind that pleasurable experience still elude comprehension.

Source: Aeon
Published: Sep 4, 2018
Length: 13 minutes (3,268 words)

The Imam’s Widow

As part of ProPublica’s “Documenting Hate” project, Rahima Nasa profiles the wife of a Queens imam who was murdered in 2016. Although there appeared to be no other possible motive, prosecutors failed to try the case as the hate crime it likely was.

Source: Pro Publica
Published: Sep 4, 2018
Length: 12 minutes (3,187 words)

A Day in the Life of New York City’s Subway Helpers

When New York’s complicated public transportation system gets delayed or overwhelming, commuters get frustrated and they complain. Now the Metropolitan Transit Authority sends special Customer Service Ambassadors into busy stations to help the lost, offer commuters alternate routes, fix MetroCards and offer a simple “I’m sorry.”

Source: Vice Magazine
Published: Aug 30, 2018
Length: 6 minutes (1,647 words)

To Post, or Not to Post?

In this personal essay, writer Eloghosa Osunde contemplates the role of marginalized artists in online activism.

Source: Longreads
Published: Sep 7, 2018
Length: 18 minutes (4,515 words)

My Psychic Mom Taught Me That People Don’t Want The Truth. They Want A Good Story.

In a personal essay about growing up in Bogotá, Ingrid Rojas Contreras describes her mother’s work in divination as important to her own development as a writer.

Source: BuzzFeed
Published: Sep 5, 2018
Length: 16 minutes (4,004 words)

Becoming a Woman Who Yells at Her Children

If yelling is the new spanking, where does that leave the progressive, occasionally voice-raising parent?

Source: The Cut
Published: Sep 6, 2018
Length: 6 minutes (1,623 words)

Hollywood’s New Golden Age

A feature on Channel 22, the television station at Hollywood’s Motion Picture Country Home, which keeps retired and disabled residents who formerly worked in film and television occupied with making new shows and movies.

Source: Topic
Published: Sep 5, 2018
Length: 16 minutes (4,247 words)