Chords of Inquiry
In looking at David Yaffe’s, Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell, Carl Wilson argues that Joni’s musical talent and accomplishments have been “asterisked” over the years because she was a girl, and that it’s long past time she got the recognition she deserves for pushing musical and cultural boundaries with songs built on her “chords of inquiry” (unique chords based on her own tunings).
I Was a 9-Year-Old Playboy Bunny
A personal essay in which Shannon Lell recalls discovering her father’s porn collection when she was 9. Looking back on her childhood longing to be a sex-symbol, she grapples with a lifetime of self-objectification.
The Tamarind Is Always Sour
Excluded from Myanmar citizenship, the Rohingya, an ethnic minority, are the largest stateless group in the world, so they pay smugglers to get them to Malaysia in inhumane conditions.
Fifty-One Inches
Terror, heartbreak, and heroism in Houston as five souls brave the worst storm in U.S. history
Blood Brother
Sarah Smarsh writes about how rich drug companies buy plasma from the poor and working poor — literally feeding their wealth with one of the few renewable resources the poor have to sell — their blood.
Kevin Smith’s Celebrity Reboot
Kevin Smith hosts six podcasts. He produces and appears on an AMC reality show that just got renewed for a seventh season. He preaches to a congregation of 3.24 million on Twitter and 2.8 million on Facebook. He tours the world. He’s in the business of giving his followers more and more Kevin Smith, and business is quite good.
Behind a $13 Shirt, a $6-an-Hour Worker
An expose on sweatshops in Los Angeles that exploit mostly undocumented workers, paying them less than minimum wage to work in slave-like conditions, and the loop-holes protecting retailers that use these sweatshops for their house brands — including Forever 21, TJ Maxx and Marshall’s.
Disguised in Plain Clothes, but No Superman
After a shooting at Iowa State, Chris Wiewiora let his teaching contract there expire, and chose to instead drive a municipal bus. His passengers were often former students.
Reinventing Staten Island
After WWII, New York City started dumping its trash on Staten Island in what became America’s first landfill. Over half a century later, scientists are turning the dump back into grasslands and tidal wetlands in a park three times as large as Central Park. The question isn’t whether ecologists can put nature back “in balance.” The question is how nature will change over time in such a toxic environment.
The Socialist Experiment
The mayor of Jackson, Mississippi was transforming his city through cooperative economics, to create a model for a new, more equitable society for black Americans. His rallying crying: “Free the land!” His plan: get black progressives into elected office, and empower through independence. Then he died. The plan did not die with him.
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