A Weekend in Texas with ZeroHedge Readers

An unofficial conference for readers of the conspiratorially-minded finance blog ZeroHedge brings a host of largely male, mostly conservative readers (and reporter Alexandra Scaggs) to the small, left-leaning town of Marfa, Texas. Prepare for Bitcoin and specialized jeans with room for four knives in this first of a three-part series.

Source: Financial Times
Published: Jun 27, 2017
Length: 9 minutes (2,485 words)

After Marriage Equality, to Party or to Protest?

Two years after the passage of the Marriage Equality Act, Spenser Mestel looks back on his mixed emotions that day and his difficulty celebrating, particularly in light of four Supreme Court Justices dissenting.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jun 26, 2017
Length: 16 minutes (4,021 words)

Meet Nevada’s Cow Cops

They don’t have their own Law & Order spin off yet, but they should. These are the men and women of law enforcement who investigate certain strains of agricultural crime. These are their stories.

Author: Tay Wiles
Published: May 29, 2017
Length: 12 minutes (3,104 words)

Guy Fieri on the Triple D Decade, Vegan Nachos, and Why You Shouldn’t Eat Frozen Pizza

Ten years and three presidents later, the Mayor of Flavortown goes all-out Elder Statesman. (And also reveals the origins of “Slamma jamma I love that lamb-a!”)

Source: Thrillist
Published: Jun 26, 2017
Length: 17 minutes (4,407 words)

Nina Simone in Liberia

Katherina Grace Thomas weaves together a gripping account of the years Nina Simone found freedom from America’s racial strife in lush, pre-Civil War Liberia.

Published: Jun 19, 2017
Length: 20 minutes (5,003 words)

My Dentist’s Murder Trial

James Lasdun tells the story of how his Kingston, NY-based dentist, Gilberto Nunez, D.D.S., wound up in prison. Lasdun writes about attending Nunez’s trial for the murder of his lover’s husband — a man he called his friend — with an eye toward the ways in which law enforcement can botch a case by determining too soon that it knows what happened, and how hard it can be to judge someone’s character.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Jul 3, 2017
Length: 24 minutes (6,229 words)

Prozac Nation Is Now the United States of Xanax

What depression was to the 1990s anxiety is to right now, growing from a medical condition into our national sociological state. What’s happening?

Published: Jun 10, 2017
Length: 8 minutes (2,178 words)

The Super Predators

Domestic abuse by police officers is underreported and less likely to lead to prosecution. It also forces victims to seek help from police departments eager to protect their own.

Source: HuffPost
Published:

The Persistance of Prog Rock

If the ‘prog’ in prog rock meant “progressive,” did this form of synthy jazz rock ever achieve its high art future? It certainly generated legions of fans and haters.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Jun 19, 2017
Length: 15 minutes (3,907 words)

Elizabeth Wurtzel Interview

Singer-songwriter Liz Phair interviews author Elizabeth Wurtzel on the occasion of the 20-year reissuing of Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America, originally published in 1997. The two discuss writing memoir vs. writing fiction (Phair herself is at work on a novel and a book of linked essays), feminism, motherhood, and music.

Author: Liz Phair
Source: Interview
Published: Jun 19, 2017
Length: 9 minutes (2,273 words)