How to Get Away with Spying for the Enemy

How does someone get away with helping a foreign adversary? Writer Sarah Laskow digs into the gonzo story of an American acquitted of spying for the Soviets—even after he confessed to it.

Source: Topic
Published: Jul 20, 2017
Length: 14 minutes (3,700 words)

The Brutal Rise of El Mencho

Mexico’s most widespread, violent drug cartel has $20 billion dollars in savings, owns half the Jalisco police and keeps expanding. Instead of growing heroin or marijuana, they manufacture methamphetamine, which has a higher profit margin and requires no open fields. They flew under the DEA’s radar by selling in Europe, Asia and Australia instead of the US. They’re based in a coastal regionwith busy shipping ports and even used submarines to avoid detection. They have a complete disregard for human life. They’re called the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, or CJNG, and they’re very successful.

Author: Josh Eells
Source: Rolling Stone
Published: Jul 11, 2017
Length: 26 minutes (6,634 words)

Open Burns, Ill Winds

An in-depth report on how munitions plants across America continue to irresponsibly dispose of bomb and bullet waste by “open burning.” The practice, banned 30 years ago, still takes place nearly every day under a permit loophole, putting millions of pounds of toxic chemicals and pollutants into the air, essentially poisoning residents and the environment.

Source: ProPublica
Published: Jul 20, 2017
Length: 38 minutes (9,692 words)

The Mad Cheese Scientists Fighting to Save the Dairy Industry

Amid an historic glut, a secretive, government-sponsored entity is putting cheese anywhere it can stuff it.
Published: Jul 19, 2017
Length: 12 minutes (3,093 words)

A Son’s Race to Give His Dying Father Artificial Immortality

After his father was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer, James Vlahos began programming a chatbot that could emulate his father using stories from his life.

Source: Wired
Published: Jul 19, 2017
Length: 28 minutes (7,193 words)

A Search for the Flavor of a Beloved Childhood Medicine

One person searches for the flavor of the pediatric amoxicillin that, despite the pain of the ear infection it treated, endeared itself to so many of us. It’s what you might call a pharmaceutical travelogue, following a different sort of chem-trail.

Author: Julie Beck
Source: The Atlantic
Published: Jul 18, 2017
Length: 7 minutes (1,932 words)

Brick By Brick

In telling stories of the wood-fired kilns her father made by hand over the years, Alice Driver reminds us of the risks and rewards inherent in creative pursuits and the deep personal satisfaction that comes from the effort and sweat you put into your craft.

Source: Arkansas Life
Published: Jul 1, 2017
Length: 9 minutes (2,417 words)

Girl Wonder

When Meaghan O’Connell finished reading a celebrated young author’s debut novel, she felt a mix of admiration, jealousy, and recognition of the powerlessness that comes with young adulthood.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jul 19, 2017
Length: 12 minutes (3,000 words)

These Truckers Work Alongside the Coders Trying to Eliminate Their Jobs

“We basically have people from two worlds, neither of which has ever talked to each other.” At Starsky Robotics, a driverless trucking startup in San Francisco, truck drivers and software engineers work side by side.

Published: Jun 22, 2017
Length: 13 minutes (3,391 words)

Showtime at the Alamo

Tim League, the creator of the Alamo Drafthouse chain of cinemas, strives to make moviegoing great again.

Source: Texas Monthly
Published: Jul 1, 2017
Length: 20 minutes (5,196 words)