A Reckoning with Reality (TV)
Teen mothers, meth users, child abusers ─ reality TV is cast with people struggling with extreme challenges, so how complicit are viewers for fueling their trouble by treating it as entertainment? Lucas Mann investigates the genre and the love he and his wife share for reality TV.
Jersey Shore: An Oral History
There are few shows that are genre-defining, and Jersey Shore, which premiered nearly a decade ago on MTV, fits that criteria. On the eve of the program’s reboot, Jersey Shore: Family Vacation, this oral history fills in all the blanks—from the casting (Paulie D became a favorite of the producers when they learned he owned his own tanning bed) to the relationships that can only develop at the Shore.
What the Arlee Warriors Were Playing For
On February 23, the Arlee Warriors, a Class C high-school basketball team from the Flathead Indian Reservation, announced they were dedicating their tournament to “all the families that have fallen victim to the loss of a loved one due to the pressures of life.”
The ISIS Files
On five trips to Iraq, Rukmini Callimachi and a team of other New York Times journalists scoured files and other papers left behind by the Islamic State, which help explain how the so-called Caliphate had been able to stay in power there for a number of years. The impression left behind? That ISIS’s penchant for brutality is matched by its acumen for efficient bureaucracy. All manner of infrastructure was apparently maintained better under the group than it had been under the Iraqi government. Money was raised not only through the sale of stollen oil, but through agriculture and through well organized and enforced taxation. Callimachi covers this in an interactive piece.
Porambo
This is simply an astonishing tale of Ron Porambo, a veteran reporter who rose to fame detailing abuses by the police during the 1967 Newark riot. Though Porambo’s resulting book brought prestige, it didn’t bring the awards he believed it deserved, so he turned to the avenue he thought would help achieve that balance he so craved: crime, specifically robbing drug dealers.
My Own Bad Story: I Thought Journalism Would Make a Hero Out of Me
In an essay from his new collection: Bad Stories: What the Hell Just Happened to Our Country, Dear Sugars co-host Steve Almond considers his beginnings in journalism through the lens of the “bad stories” he believes delivered our country to the Trump era. Accompanied by a Longreads Podcast interview with Essays Editor Sari Botton.
Children of ‘The Cloud’ and Major Tom: Growing Up in the ’80s Under the German Sky
On the 70-year-long presence of American air bases in Germany, and how it has shaped the memory and sense of place of several generations of Germans.
Leslie Jamison On The Lies She’s Told
Big lies, small lies, lies of omission. Leslie Jamison fesses up to how lying had become a way to avoid conflict, her flaws, and having to face up to and deal with her uglier emotions.
Unruly Bodies
At Medium, Hunger: A Memoir of My Body author Roxane Gay created this excellent pop-up magazine, to be delivered in installments over four Tuesdays in April — “a month-long magazine exploring our ever-changing relationship with our bodies,” she writes. “I knew exactly what I wanted to do — to create a space for writers I respect and admire to contribute to the ongoing conversation about unruly bodies and what it means to be human.” She tapped 24 writers to contribute. This first edition features an introduction by Gay, and essays by Randa Jarrar, Kiese Laymon, Matthew Salesses, Keah Brown, S. Bear Bergman, and Mary Anne Mohanraj. To come in the next three editions: Carmen Maria Machado, chelsea g. summers, Kaveh Akbar, Terese Mailhot, Casey Hannan, Samantha Irby, Tracy Lynne Oliver, Kelly Davio, Brian Oliu, Mike Copperman, Danielle Evans, Jennine Capó Crucet, Megan Carpentier, Kima Jones, the writer known as Your Fat Friend, Gabrielle Bellot, Mensah Demary, and larissa pham.
The Dizzying Story of Symphony of the Seas, the Largest and Most Ambitious Cruise Ship Ever Built
Every “ship at sea is its own island,” but not all of them come equipped with a zipline, 40 restaurants and bars, and a laser-tag facility.
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