The Forever Nomad

A personal essay. For an immigrant, losing a home is a given, but Margarita Gokun Silver wonders if never finding one again is also part of the journey.

Source: Longreads
Published: Apr 30, 2018
Length: 17 minutes (4,386 words)

Chasing Drinks with Lies, and Lies with Drinks

In this personal essay, Katie MacBride recalls her last days abusing alcohol before getting sober.

Source: Longreads
Published: Apr 27, 2018
Length: 10 minutes (2,641 words)

The Robot Assault On Fukushima

How one little robot bravely went where no human could, to document the extent of the damage at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant so that Japanese scientists can figure out how to clean it up.

Source: Wired
Published: Apr 26, 2018
Length: 18 minutes (4,613 words)

The Offending Article

The “War and Postwar: The Prism of the Times” exhibition outside Tokyo shows the way WWII-era photographers collaborated with Japan’s propagandist wartime regime to sculpt the visual perception of Japan. With Japan’s current militant, pro-nuclear government, the exhibit offers an important reminder of artists’ obligations to make work that challenges, rather than perpetuates, the status quo.

Source: Even
Published: Nov 1, 2015
Length: 9 minutes (2,335 words)

An MSG Convert Visits the High Church of Umami

If you love the satisfying, deep flavor of many umami-rich foods, you love MSG whether you know it or not. One fellow MSG fan made a pilgrimage to the company responsible for enhancing so much flavor, and enhancing life itself: Ajinomoto outside of Tokyo.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Apr 27, 2018
Length: 6 minutes (1,727 words)

The Strange History of the “King-Pine”

Everything you didn’t know you wanted to know about pineapples.

Published: Apr 25, 2018
Length: 6 minutes (1,706 words)

We’re the Good Guys, Right?

Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk — they look a lot like the villains they fight. When did superheroes switch from working for justice to running a protection racket?

Source: n+1
Published: Apr 26, 2018
Length: 13 minutes (3,494 words)

‘The Fatal Conscience’: Julia de Burgos, Puerto Rico’s Greatest Poet

Molly Crabapple retraces the life of the great twentieth century Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos amid the devastation of Hurricane Maria.

Published: Apr 26, 2018
Length: 24 minutes (6,141 words)

Rosi’s Choice

When a young mother fleeing violence in El Salvador faces long odds for asylum, it raises a crucial question: Who deserves sanctuary in America?

Source: VQR
Published: Mar 1, 2018
Length: 33 minutes (8,457 words)

Rural Kansas is dying. I drove 1,800 miles to find out why.

A native Kansan returns home to find that the broken promises of commodity agriculture have destroyed a way of life.

Published: Apr 26, 2018
Length: 22 minutes (5,625 words)