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).

Source: Bookforum
Published: Sep 1, 2017
Length: 7 minutes (1,810 words)

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.

Source: Longreads
Published: Sep 6, 2017
Length: 9 minutes (2,345 words)

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.

Author: Keane Shum
Source: Granta
Published: Jun 19, 2017
Length: 33 minutes (8,431 words)

Fifty-One Inches

Terror, heartbreak, and heroism in Houston as five souls brave the worst storm in U.S. history

Published: Sep 2, 2017
Length: 24 minutes (6,108 words)

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.

Source: VQR
Published: Aug 31, 2017
Length: 7 minutes (1,883 words)

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.

Source: Vulture
Published: Sep 5, 2017
Length: 16 minutes (4,000 words)

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.

Published: Sep 1, 2017
Length: 13 minutes (3,498 words)

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.

Source: Longreads
Published: Sep 4, 2017
Length: 13 minutes (3,328 words)

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.

Source: Nautilus
Published: Aug 3, 2017
Length: 14 minutes (3,626 words)

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.

Source: Oxford American
Published: Sep 5, 2017
Length: 48 minutes (12,205 words)