What Miyazaki’s Heroines Taught Me About My Mixed-Race Identity

On the wonder and strangeness of occupying a perpetually in-between space.

Source: Catapult
Published: Oct 16, 2017
Length: 9 minutes (2,494 words)

Amy Tan on Writing and the Secrets of Her Past

Nicole Chung interviews novelist Amy Tan about her parents’ secrets, whether her late father might have voted for Donald Trump, and her new memoir, Where the Past Begins: A Writer’s Memoir.

Source: Shondaland
Published: Oct 16, 2017
Length: 10 minutes (2,556 words)

Becoming a Steelworker Liberated Her. Then Her Job Moved to Mexico.

Farah Stockman profiles manufacturing employee Shannon Mulcahy during her last year at Rexnord, a bearing plant in Indianapolis, Indiana that moved to Mexico for cheaper labor. As Mulcahy trains the Mexican men who will eventually take her job, Stockman posits that American workers are not only losing their livelihoods but also their identities — the pride and self-esteem accrued from the specialized manufacturing knowledge accumulated over decades at work.

Published: Oct 14, 2017
Length: 32 minutes (8,105 words)

The Science of Spying: How the CIA Secretly Recruits Academics

The US spy agency has spent millions of dollars creating whole scientific conferences in order to gather intelligence and get nuclear scientists from countries like Iran to defect.

Source: The Guardian
Published: Oct 10, 2017
Length: 16 minutes (4,100 words)

Mr. Throat and Me

When life’s greatest pleasure is the one you have to quit.

Source: Banshee Lit
Published: Oct 13, 2017
Length: 18 minutes (4,695 words)

Seven Days on the Oprah Cruise

When the author takes her megafan mom on a cruise ship with Oprah and 2,000 other disciples, everyone’s dream comes true: Oprah finally visits Alaska, and the author’s mom finally meets her idol. For like ten seconds.

Published: Sep 29, 2017
Length: 18 minutes (4,662 words)

Death at a Penn State Fraternity

Tim Piazza fought for life for 12 hours while his Beta Theta Pi brothers alternatively did nothing, or continued to abuse him — and it’s all on video.

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Oct 12, 2017
Length: 37 minutes (9,488 words)

Jackie Chan’s Plan to Keep Kicking Forever

Jackie Chan is a one-man industry. Like all one-man industries, however, he relies on many, many other people. This GQ profile of Chan by Alex Pappademas introduces you to the man himself, but also to those around him: co-stars, directors, and most important of all, the Jackie Chan Stunt Team.

Source: GQ
Published: Oct 3, 2017
Length: 18 minutes (4,656 words)

The New Midlife Crisis: Why (and How) it’s Hitting Gen X Women

Ada Calhoun’s ranging examination of women in the Generation X demographic — sandwiched between the much larger Baby Boom and Millennial generations — and their unique struggles in mid-life.

Published: Oct 9, 2017
Length: 25 minutes (6,343 words)

What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About

A personal essay in which Michele Filgate looks back at her life as a teen living with an abusive stepfather, and considers her mother’s reluctance to protect her daughter, or even speak about it.

Source: Longreads
Published: Oct 9, 2017
Length: 10 minutes (2,501 words)