My Inheritance Was My Father’s Last Lesson To Me And I Am Still Learning It

When Alexander Chee’s father died at the age of 43 he didn’t leave behind a will, and his estate was divided among his wife and three children. When he turned 18, Chee was bequeathed a trust, and the first thing he bought was something he thought his father would want for him — a black Alfa Romeo.

Source: BuzzFeed
Published: Jan 28, 2018
Length: 18 minutes (4,530 words)

Recovering My Fifth Sense

In this personal essay, Kavita Das recalls learning to self-advocate as a patient with a cleft palate — and as a child in a family full of doctors.

Author: Kavita Das
Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 29, 2018
Length: 18 minutes (4,512 words)

Where Are All the Vegetarian TV Shows?

Plant-based tropes are everywhere — from almond-milk lattes to avocado-toast jokes — yet the Food Network remains a “burgers, beer, and bacon” destination.

Source: Thrillist
Published: Jan 26, 2018
Length: 17 minutes (4,435 words)

The Lexington Cure

When the United States Narcotic Farm opened in Lexington, Kentucky in 1935, it aimed to rehabilitate drug offenders and equip them for a productive sober life. In the process, it became a place for jazz musicians to take a break and jam together. A Kentucky poet who grew up near the farm reflects on the way she found her own cure.

Source: Oxford American
Published: Nov 21, 2017
Length: 13 minutes (3,312 words)

How Video Games Demonize Fat People

Anshuman Iddamsetty interrogates why in video games being fat so often means being considered less than human.

Source: The Outline
Published: Jan 23, 2018
Length: 12 minutes (3,172 words)

How I Stopped Being Ashamed Of My EBT Card

A reported personal essay in which Janelle Harris writes about reluctantly succumbing to her need for Medicaid and the electronic equivalent of food stamps after she lost her full-time reporting job in 2012, in order to feed herself and her daughter.

Source: BuzzFeed
Published: Jan 23, 2018
Length: 9 minutes (2,306 words)

The Diabolical Genius of the Baby Advice Industry

On the modern explosion of a confusing, quackery-filled, yet irresistibly addictive book genre.

Source: The Guardian
Published: Jan 16, 2018
Length: 22 minutes (5,620 words)

Is ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ the Most Radical Show on TV?

In her first cover piece for the New York Times magazine, Jenna Wortham profiles RuPaul, making note of the ways in which he — and his 9-year-old reality competition TV show — have had to evolve along with shifting understandings of gender, and the politics around it.

Published: Jan 24, 2018
Length: 24 minutes (6,234 words)

The Many Acts of Keith Gordon

How does a young, successful actor become a relatively unknown director of most of the television you watch? And what’s next?

Published: Jan 25, 2018
Length: 33 minutes (8,481 words)

How to Win Founders and Influence Everybody

Some of the best communications strategists remain highly influential yet invisible. Here’s how Margit Wennmachers became one of tech’s best.

Source: Wired
Published: Jan 21, 2018
Length: 15 minutes (3,824 words)