The Short & Brilliant Life of Ernest Matthew Mickler

When Ernest “Ernie” Matthew Mickler’s book White Trash Cooking appeared in 1986, it became an instant hit. Its author was viewed as either a talented Southern folklorist or a comical novelty. But his work was a rich cultural document of a vanishing rural Florida, and he proved that poor rural people can and should document their life-ways with dignity. This is Mickler’s story.

Published: Jan 9, 2018
Length: 26 minutes (6,674 words)

How ‘Cops’ Became the Most Polarizing Reality TV Show in America

What one of TV’s longest-running reality shows says about race and our relationship with the police.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 22, 2018
Length: 25 minutes (6,325 words)

From One Friendship, Lessons on Life, Death, AIDS and Childlessness

In this personal essay, S. Kirk Walsh reflects on her friendship with a gay man battling AIDS — how he taught her to grieve her own infertility, and live life more fully.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 22, 2018
Length: 26 minutes (6,711 words)

Diary of a Do-Gooder

In this personal essay, after years of trying to distinguish herself, Sara Eckel considers the value of door-to-door canvassing, phone-banking, and other anonymous tasks of everyday activism.

Author: Sara Eckel
Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 19, 2018
Length: 19 minutes (4,774 words)

The Coping Economy

American companies increasingly expect employees to do more work for the same pay rate. Companies have helped them cope by providing mindfulness training and time to meditate, but are mindful workers better off, or are they just being groomed to accept their new stressful baseline and poor work-life balance?

Source: Dissent
Published: Jan 1, 2018
Length: 8 minutes (2,039 words)

Dirty Gold, Clean Cash

A Miami Herald investigation looks at how billions of dollars worth of gold from Latin American narco-traffickers illegally makes it into the U.S. and eventually becomes used in American jewelry, coins and smartphones.

Source: Miami Herald
Published: Jan 16, 2018
Length: 14 minutes (3,636 words)

My Brother’s Keeper

Sabine Heinlein tells the heartbreaking story of Terri Been, who has devoted years of her life to saving her brother’s after he was sentenced to death by the state of Texas almost two decades ago for a murder he definitively did not commit.

Published: Jan 16, 2018
Length: 28 minutes (7,000 words)

The New Age of Astrology

What’s behind the recent surge of interest in astrology — especially among millennials?

Author: Julie Beck
Source: The Atlantic
Published: Jan 16, 2018
Length: 13 minutes (3,459 words)

The Fall of Travis Kalanick Was a Lot Weirder and Darker Than You Thought

A behind-the-scenes account of how Travis Kalanick was ousted from Uber as chief executive officer.

Published: Jan 18, 2018
Length: 16 minutes (4,000 words)

When Barbie Went to War With Bratz

Jill Lepore looks at the problem of defining intellectual property when it comes to what young girls should play with: “The feud between Barbie and Bratz occupies the narrow space between thin lines: between fashion and porn, between originals and copies, and between toys for girls and rights for women.”

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Jan 17, 2018
Length: 18 minutes (4,700 words)