Surviving Racism

Terese Marie Mailhot reflects on the systemic racism she’s experienced as a human and as a writer. She relates that speaking out against racism can come with a personal cost, but that as a natural-born liberator, she is both willing and prepared to use her voice and her stories to overcome it.

Published: May 15, 2018
Length: 18 minutes (4,585 words)

Why Our Kids Need to Learn About Residential Schools

On how Canadians and parents in particular, need to first educate themselves, and then their children on Residential Schools: Canada’s cultural genocide. As a nation, we need to learn the individual stories of people like Phyllis Webstad, Gladys Chapman, and Chanie Wenjack, and about how the government partnered with the Catholic church to remove Indigenous children from their families in a bid to “take the Indian out of the child.”

Source: Maclean’s
Published: May 15, 2018
Length: 8 minutes (2,167 words)

The Jaguar Is Made for the Age of Humans

The jaguar is the largest cat in the Americas. Despite its ability to kill people with little effort, its adaptability, secrecy and avoidance of human conflicts might provide the traits necessary to survive on a planet filled with people.

Source: The Atlantic
Published: May 10, 2018
Length: 12 minutes (3,153 words)

More than Make-Work

A jobs guarantee is a messy, awkward, good idea.

Source: Longreads
Published: May 23, 2018
Length: 9 minutes (2,366 words)

The Beat of Dissent

Dissident rappers surface as powerful antagonists against Angola’s corrupt kleptocracy.

Source: Even Magazine
Published: Jan 26, 2017
Length: 16 minutes (4,056 words)

No Cinderella: Margo Jefferson on the Real Meghan Markle

Margo Jefferson, author of the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Negroland, takes a probing look at the union of the new Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Source: The Guardian
Published: May 5, 2018
Length: 11 minutes (2,771 words)

Willful Waters

For the first time in decades, Angelinos have taken a profound interest in their own Los Angeles River, reclaiming parts of its concrete-lined course as parks and bike paths and plotting its rebirth. The river’s history shows that history is cyclical, not linear.

Source: Places
Published: May 1, 2018
Length: 27 minutes (6,763 words)

A Tiny Scar, From Falling

A personal essay in which Lara B. Sharp’s efforts to gather information about what happened to her in foster care and as a ward of the state turn up nothing but incorrect records.

Source: Longreads
Published: May 21, 2018
Length: 11 minutes (2,955 words)

We Depend on Plastic. Now We’re Drowning In it.

The miracle material has made modern life possible. But more than 40 percent of it is used just once, and it’s choking our waterways.

Published: May 15, 2018
Length: 23 minutes (5,823 words)

The Decline of Snapchat and the Secret Joy of Internet Ghost Towns

As once-popular Snapchat becomes an increasingly irrelevant platform, Helena Fitzgerald finds beauty in its uselessness.

Source: The Verge
Published: May 18, 2018
Length: 9 minutes (2,394 words)