Notes from a Baby-Names Obsessive

Names channel our identity — or at least our parents’ idea of our future identity — in ways both big (class, ethnicity) and small (subcultural affiliations, self-awareness). When the mother’s American and the father’s French, things get complicated, fast.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Jul 31, 2017
Length: 15 minutes (3,986 words)

She Was Convicted of Killing Her Mother. Prosecutors Withheld the Evidence That Would Have Freed Her.

By the time Noura Jackson’s conviction was overturned, she had spent nine years in prison. This type of prosecutorial error is almost never punished.

Published: Aug 1, 2017
Length: 31 minutes (7,750 words)

Skiffle Craze: An Interview with Billy Bragg

On the Paris Review, Alex Abramovich talks with Billy Bragg about skiffle, the history of music, and duck jokes.

Published: Aug 1, 2017
Length: 14 minutes (3,745 words)

Shot in the Dark

Spending six days in a cave without any light means hallucinations, hypothermia, and the potential for fatal falls. Why would anyone volunteer for one of the most extreme reality shows ever?

Source: Esquire
Published: Aug 1, 2017
Length: 23 minutes (5,825 words)

Judith Jones, In Her Own Words

The prolific editor, who was an early champion of Anne Frank’s diary, Julia Child’s cookbooks, and many other notable works of the past half-century, passed away today.

Source: Eater
Published: Sep 23, 2015
Length: 7 minutes (1,993 words)

Losing It in the Anti-Dieting Age

In recounting the history of America’s obsession with thinness, Taffy Brodesser-Akner explores her own struggles with weight loss and the weight loss industry. She relates how “diet” has become a four-letter word, out in favor of a new form of personal imprisonment — “eating clean,” “getting fit, and “being strong” — none of which offer any magic in a lifetime of struggle between body acceptance and losing weight.

Published: Aug 2, 2017
Length: 33 minutes (8,352 words)

About a Boy: A Transgender Teen at the Tipping Point

“As long as his contours didn’t give his secret away, ‘Jay’ was a clean slate, a boy who could be anyone.” For three years, Casey Parks chronicled the life of a transgender teenager in Washington State. This is part one in a three-part series.

Source: The Oregonian
Published: Jul 28, 2017
Length: 16 minutes (4,207 words)

Mental Illness is Not a Capital Crime

An excerpt from Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color, by Andrea J. Richie, just out from Beacon Press. In this chapter, subtitled, “On the disproportional impact of police violence on women of color,” Richie writes about the impact law enforcement’s common misconceptions about women of color can have on the women’s safety. In cases where mental illness is an added factor, police officers often know even less, and are violent toward women who aren’t dangerous.

Source: LitHub
Published: Aug 1, 2017
Length: 18 minutes (4,547 words)

When Death is a Choice

Dave Cameron profiles David Forsee, a man with a fatal lung disease who chose to end his life under Canada’s right to die legislation. As his time diminishes, Forsee and his friends and caregivers struggle to be at peace with the choice he made and the time he has left.

Source: The Walrus
Published: Jul 20, 2017
Length: 10 minutes (2,578 words)

Tenants Under Siege: Inside New York City’s Housing Crisis

Despite having the most progressive housing laws in the country, New York City is in the throes of a humanitarian emergency: a large-scale “displacement of populations” from their homes.

Published: Aug 17, 2017
Length: 34 minutes (8,669 words)