In Guatemala, a Solo Traveler Learns It’s Sometimes Best to Leap Before You Look

A travel essay in which, during a last-minute solo excursion to Lake Atitlan, Jami Attenberg considers the advantages to taking more risks and opening up to the unfamiliar, and the differences between healthy solitude and isolation.

Source: AFAR
Published: May 30, 2018
Length: 10 minutes (2,560 words)

The Weird, Dangerous, Isolated Life of the Saturation Diver

“One of the world’s most hazardous jobs is known for its intense pressure.”

Source: Atlas Obscura
Published: May 9, 2018
Length: 19 minutes (4,916 words)

How One Woman’s Fight to Save Her Family Helped Lead to a Mass Exoneration

On Chicago’s Southside, Clarissa Glenn worked for ten years to get her husband out of prison after crooked cops planted evidence on him. Her efforts ended up overturning thirty-two other convictions.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: May 28, 2018
Length: 30 minutes (7,630 words)

Blood Will Tell, Part II

The conclusion to Pamela Colloff’s intensive investigation into the murder conviction of Joe Bryan and the flawed forensic “science” — blood spatter analysis — on which it rests.

Source: ProPublica
Published: May 31, 2018
Length: 45 minutes (11,369 words)

How Sex and the City Holds Up…and Doesn’t

On the 20th anniversary of the first episode of Sex and the City, Glynnis MacNicol rewatches the series and assesses the ways in which it remains relevant, and the ways in which the series could never get made in today’s more socially conscious climate.

Source: Elle
Published: May 30, 2018
Length: 9 minutes (2,281 words)

How Anna Delvey Tricked New York

She said came from a German family of art collectors and tipped generously in cash. But when the months-long hotel bill came due, Anna would find an excuse, then an escape, leaving her friends to pick up the bill.

Published: May 28, 2018
Length: 34 minutes (8,700 words)

Why Everyone Loves Macaroni and Cheese

A veteran cheesemonger reflects on the most American of comfort-food staples.

Published: May 24, 2018
Length: 6 minutes (1,657 words)

What’ll We Eat in 2050? California Farmers Are Placing Bets

Nut and avocado trees require years to mature before they start producing crops. With California’s climate already changing, farmers need to reckon with their decisions to plant lucrative crops that the state’s climate might not be able to support in the future. But they also have to grow crops that pay for their equipment and mortgages right now.

Source: Grist
Published: May 22, 2018
Length: 10 minutes (2,542 words)

A Fish Called Rockweed

In Maine, a strange legal debate is raging over rights to the state’s most important seaweed. At least, it seems to be a seaweed.

Source: Hakai Magazine
Published: May 29, 2018
Length: 10 minutes (2,595 words)

It’s Not Easy Being Evergreen: An Oral History of the Muppets

Studio 360, the public-radio show and Slate podcast, shares an oral history of the Muppets. The piece covers the endearing appeal of these personality-packed foam and felt creations and how creator Jim Henson struggled to find the right setting for his cast of characters in the early years before Sesame Street and The Muppet Show made them famous. Did you know they actually had a brief stint on Saturday Night Live?

Author: Studio 360
Source: Slate
Published: May 29, 2018
Length: 12 minutes (3,214 words)