An Alternate Future for the Mall

While the familiar shopping mall formula is suffering in the US, malls in Latin America are booming, since online shopping hasn’t overtaken traditional commerce. Unfortunately, malls’ chic, air conditioned offerings have profound consequences in Mexico City, where street vendors, city parks and plazas have always had a central role in the fabric of life, and the informal economy employed more people than multinational chains.

Source: n+1
Published: Aug 16, 2017
Length: 8 minutes (2,020 words)

“We Just Feel Like We Don’t Belong Here Anymore”

Think it’s hard for the white working class in rural America? Try being a person of color.

Source: Mother Jones
Published: Aug 16, 2017
Length: 14 minutes (3,603 words)

Down the Breitbart Hole

Breitbart, a far-right media outlet, was once described by Steve Bannon as a “platform for the alt-right.” But its editor-in-chief says he is trying to turn the site into a legitimate news organization and has been called a traitor for acknowledging Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

Published: Aug 16, 2017
Length: 35 minutes (8,791 words)

The Fight of His Life

Afghan Noorullah Aminyar was a valuable ally to the American military. Now, after a failed defection attempt and three years in detention, his asylum claims rests on the argument that the U.S. has lost the war in Afghanistan.

Source: Esquire
Published: Aug 16, 2017
Length: 25 minutes (6,425 words)

Our Minds Have Been Hijacked by Our Phones. Tristan Harris Wants to Rescue Them.

A former Google design ethicist insists that our minds have been hijacked in an arms race for our attention. He also insists that, with the help of a Hippocratic Oath for software designers, we can win.

Source: Wired
Published: Jul 26, 2017
Length: 18 minutes (4,500 words)

Annie Dillard’s Classic Essay: ‘Total Eclipse’

Dillard’s 1982 personal essay — excerpted by The Atlantic from her new collection, The Abundance: Narrative Essays Old and New. She writes in exquisite detail about the haunting, surreal experience of witnessing the last solar eclipse, on February 26th, 1979, after driving five hours inland in Washington State to catch it from a hill top.

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Aug 8, 2017
Length: 22 minutes (5,735 words)

Nobody Knows What Lies Beneath New York City

Satellites can map the earth’s surface, but the world underneath cities is the last cartographic frontier. One team is mapping New York City’s subsurface infrastructure in 3-D to improve safety, streamline growth, and allow New York to lead the world to becoming a “smart city.”

Published: Aug 10, 2017
Length: 14 minutes (3,683 words)

How a Journalist Uncovered the True Identity of Jihadi John

Souad Mekhennet’s thrilling tale of late-night rendezvous, burner phones, and secret codes — and her quest to reveal the man in black. Excerpted from I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad.

Source: Longreads
Published: Aug 16, 2017
Length: 20 minutes (5,112 words)

In the future, your body won’t be buried…you’ll dissolve

For humans over the centuries, our dead have been embalmed, buried, and cremated. Now, a process called alkaline hydrolysis — using a machine called the Resomator — is being called a more environmental, less expensive, and attractive alternative.

Source: Wired UK
Published: Aug 15, 2017
Length: 17 minutes (4,276 words)

Instagram’s Kevin Systrom Wants to Clean Up the Internet

The photo sharing service has built tools and algorithms to remove offensive comments for its 700 million users with the hope that it will reduce the amount of toxicity they experience online.

Source: Wired
Published: Aug 14, 2017
Length: 17 minutes (4,363 words)