Chinese Dreams on Native American Land: A Tale of Cannabis Boom and Bust

“The farms now lie empty. Inside abandoned mobile homes and barely insulated plywood shacks, the contents of every cupboard, drawer and closet are strewn across the floors, likely the work of law enforcement searching for evidence. The air smells of sewage and rotting food. Clothes still hang in the closets. Toothbrushes sit beside sinks. Outside, empty bottles and Chinese cigarette packets tumble across the fallow fields.”

Source: BBC
Published: May 8, 2021
Length: 25 minutes (6,345 words)

Inheriting an Autoimmune Disease and an Instinct for Survival

“Science provides me with a vocabulary of illness, confirming what my body already knows: that it will never be the same.”

Source: Catapult
Published: May 10, 2021
Length: 11 minutes (2,800 words)

The Child Care Industry Was Collapsing. Mrs. Jackie Bet Everything on an Impossible Dream to Save It.

“Jackie Thomas was $29,134 in debt and in trouble with state regulators. She hadn’t slept in days. If a judge ruled against her, she’d fail the mothers who could only keep their jobs thanks to the 24-hour child care she offered.”

Source: ProPublica
Published: May 1, 2021
Length: 21 minutes (5,300 words)

Inequality’s Deadly Toll

“A century of research has demonstrated how poverty and discrimination drive disease. Can COVID push science to finally address the issue?”

Author: Amy Maxmen
Source: Nature
Published: Apr 28, 2021
Length: 25 minutes (6,469 words)

Reporter’s Notebook: The Power of Proximity

“A behind-the-scenes look at a year-long investigation into Mississippi’s laws that automatically put some kids as young as 13 into adult prisons and jails.”

Author: Ko Bragg
Published: Feb 12, 2021
Length: 15 minutes (3,894 words)

My Mother’s Other World

“Motherhood had always been her path. In exchange for it, however, the woman before me had surrendered her keys to the world.”

Source: Brooke Mazurek
Published: May 5, 2021
Length: 13 minutes (3,468 words)

‘As Borders Closed, I Became Trapped in my Americanness’: China, the US and Me

“Once, a friend asked me: “How good are you at passing?” – that is, passing as Chinese-Chinese, not Chinese American. I wanted to pass, but like the many Asian Americans who, like me, have tried to go back to the motherland and find a place there, I could never “pass” for long.”

 

Source: The Guardian
Published: May 6, 2021
Length: 18 minutes (4,739 words)

‘The Mark of the Beast’: Georgian Britain’s Anti-Vaxxer Movement

“The arguments made by today’s anti-vaxxers often echo those put forth by their nineteenth-century antecedents: claims of inefficacy, allegations of ghastly side effects, appeals to religion.”

Published: Apr 27, 2021
Length: 8 minutes (2,234 words)

Shark Attacks in Maine Were Unthinkable — Until Last Summer

“Last year’s first-ever fatal shark attack jolted Mainers into acknowledging that great whites regularly swim off the state’s shores — and that there’s plenty about them we don’t know.”

Source: Down East
Published: May 3, 2021
Length: 15 minutes (3,931 words)

Two Assholes Lost in the Woods: An Oral History of ‘Pine Barrens’

“Twenty years after it aired, David Chase and Co. look back on the one of the wildest, boldest, funniest episodes of ‘The Sopranos’ ever made.”

Source: The Ringer
Published: May 5, 2021
Length: 22 minutes (5,600 words)