The Man in the Mirror

In this personal essay, in the aftermath of rape, Alison Kinney discovers that a new lover who helps you to heal can just as easily betray you.

Source: Longreads
Published: Mar 9, 2018
Length: 16 minutes (4,156 words)

Journeys In Trump World

A tourist who stays exclusively at Trump properties around the world experiences opulence, pointless exclusivity and a clear vision of American mediocrity. Writer Jason Wilson made this global journey so we don’t have to. Unfortunately, we’re all living it already.

Source: Washington Post
Published: Mar 12, 2018
Length: 29 minutes (7,372 words)

The Lost Kids on the Line

In Lebanon, not far from the Syrian border, a crew of volunteer slackliners tries to bring fleeting moments of magic into displaced children’s lives.

Published: Mar 14, 2018
Length: 19 minutes (4,978 words)

How Pop-Ups Took Over America’s Restaurants

“High turnover is now a virtue” in the restaurant business, “which means the latest food trend isn’t an ingredient or a cuisine; it’s a length of time.” GQ sends Ryan Bradley to eat his way across Los Angeles in an attempt to help readers (and his 96-year-old grandmother, Bam-Bam) get to the bottom of our trendy attraction to ephemeral dining experiences.

Source: GQ
Published: Mar 7, 2018
Length: 9 minutes (2,300 words)

‘The Trains Are Slower Because They Slowed the Trains Down’

In 1995, a Manhattan-bound J train crossing the Williamsburg Bridge rear-ended an M train, killing the J train operator and injuring more than fifty passengers. New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has run the trains at suboptimal speeds ever since, while publicly blaming the systemwide slowdown on budget cuts and euphemisms for overcrowding. Village Voice transit reporter Aaron Gordon traces how the response to this single accident two decades ago set New York City’s transit system on a path to disaster.

Source: Village Voice
Published: Mar 13, 2018
Length: 14 minutes (3,500 words)

For Decades, Our Coverage Was Racist. To Rise Above Our Past, We Must Acknowledge It

In her introduction to National Geographic‘s “Race Issue,” Editor-in-Chief Susan Goldberg looks back on the ways in which the magazine’s coverage, since its inception in 1888, has participated in othering of people of color, and used racial slurs.

Published: Mar 12, 2018
Length: 6 minutes (1,630 words)

Why Reading Sherman Alexie was Never Enough

In the wake of several women speaking out about being sexually harassed by Native American author Sherman Alexie, and/or having their careers derailed by him, writer Jacqueline Keeler interrogates the tokenism and minimal representation in publishing that gave Alexie so much power.

Source: Yes Magazine
Published: Mar 12, 2018
Length: 14 minutes (3,627 words)

Invaders on Holiday (or, The Consequences of Time Travel at the International Stone Skipping Competition)

Prepare to immerse yourself more deeply in the timeless culture of stone-skipping that you ever thought possible.

Published: Mar 1, 2018
Length: 15 minutes (3,942 words)

The Koch Brothers vs. God

The fossil fuel lobby preached its gospel in Virginia. Now, black churches are fighting back.

Published: Mar 14, 2018
Length: 11 minutes (2,896 words)

How Ken Layne Created a Publishing Oasis in a Desert Town of 8,000 People

If you’re dedicated and have an original vision, you can make things happen, even way out among the cactus. Anyway, the rattlesnakes are nicer than some of the people in New York media.

Published: Mar 5, 2018
Length: 7 minutes (1,996 words)