The Haunting of Lindsey Jacobellis

There has never been a competitor in the history of snowboard cross like Lindsey Jacobellis, which is why it was all the more shocking that Jacobellis floundered in three consecutive Winter Olympics. To the public, those slip-ups came to define her, and John Branch examines how Jacobellis has succeeded to quiet both the external and internal noise: by working with a mental strength coach whose previous experience came helping financial traders in the high pressure environment of Wall Street.

Published: Feb 14, 2018
Length: 10 minutes (2,568 words)

The Sublimated Grief of the Left Behind

Scholars don’t have sufficient ways to fully grieve the losses of not only stable academic jobs, but of life in an academic economy that undervalues their work.

Source: erinbartram.com
Published: Feb 11, 2018
Length: 9 minutes (2,415 words)

If Farmers Paid for Childcare, Would It Bring Workers Back to the Fields?

When conventional daycare doesn’t align with farm schedules or changing weather conditions, agricultural laborers find themselves between a rock and a hard place: opt out of seasonal positions during an acute labor shortage, or bring their children to work.

Published: Feb 13, 2018
Length: 8 minutes (2,200 words)

The Final, Terrible Voyage of the Nautilus

Kim Wall went for a ride on a submarine, hoping to write a story about a maker of “extreme machines.” She never did. In a search for answers, May Jeong traveled to Denmark to investigate the tragic and senseless murder of her friend — a young journalist in the prime of her life.

Author: May Jeong
Source: Wired
Published: Feb 15, 2018
Length: 20 minutes (5,044 words)

Black Disabled Wonder Women Need Love, Too

A personal essay in which Britney Wilson considers the lessons she learned while taking a risk on romance.

Source: Longreads
Published: Feb 16, 2018
Length: 25 minutes (6,304 words)

The Great Stink

It’s time for men to stop worrying about who they are, and start thinking about what they do.

Source: Longreads
Published: Feb 14, 2018
Length: 17 minutes (4,270 words)

Finding a Lost Strain of Rice, and Clues to Slave Cooking

Historians of African-diaspora cooking have considered hill rice a mythical, long-extinct staple. Then, one of them stumbled on it while walking in the Trinidadian countryside.

Published: Feb 13, 2018
Length: 8 minutes (2,017 words)

God’s Own Music

A look at the English choral tradition, a form of music that has spread more widely that you’d imagine.

Published: Feb 22, 2018
Length: 16 minutes (4,013 words)

The Breakup Museum: Archiving the Way We Were

Essayist Leslie Jamison visits the Breakup Museum in Zagreb, Croatia — created in 2003 after founders Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubišić ended their relationship — and considers what stories are told by the objects we shared with former loved ones.

Published: Feb 14, 2018
Length: 27 minutes (6,793 words)

Get Schooled in the No-Nonsense Art of Survival

Eva Holland attended Extreme Polar Training, a school that teaches how to survive what mother nature has to offer 2.5 degrees south of the Arctic circle. In addition to treacherous, bruising ice, it includes temperatures of -40F and wind so cold and strong it gives you a headache before it tries to blow you over. For Outside, she recounts the experience and the final exam — a weeklong 40 mile loop in the frozen Canadian north.

Source: Outside
Published: Feb 13, 2018
Length: 19 minutes (4,780 words)