Getting In and Out: Who Owns Black Pain?

“Their grandmother is as black as the ace of spades, as the British used to say; their mother is what the French still call café au lait. They themselves are sort of yellowy. When exactly does black suffering cease to be their concern?”

Published: Jun 19, 2017
Length: 15 minutes (3,801 words)

Rigged

Did you know that your Ralph Lauren polo shirt was driven to the warehouse by an indentured servant? At USA Today, Brett Murphy reports on how port truckers — required to lease their trucks from their companies — are essentially working as indentured servants for pennies (or less) each week as they struggle to drive enough hours to appease their bosses and the public’s insatiable demand for items from big chains like Target, Ralph Lauren, J. Crew, and The Home Depot. If a driver fails to log enough hours, falls behind, gets sick, or collapses from exhaustion, the company seizes their truck and they forfeit everything they’ve paid toward its purchase.

Source: USA Today
Published: Jun 16, 2017
Length: 24 minutes (6,187 words)

After Oranges

Fifty years after New Yorker writer John McPhee published his slender study Oranges, one writer traces McPhee’s story down to Florida to assess the state of American citrus and the peculiar nature of this enduring book.

Source: Oxford American
Published: Jun 14, 2017
Length: 27 minutes (6,974 words)

My Father’s Adventure Was My Terror

Diana Whitney recalls traveling to Pakistan with her father at 13, and the dangers of a day trip to Peshawar that he was cautioned against taking.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jun 18, 2017
Length: 8 minutes (2,009 words)

Notes from the Lower Level

Poet and memoirist Camille T. Dungy writes with captivating, lyrical detail about the incessant news cycle of black deaths, the psychic toll it has taken on her, and how her approach to daily life has been altered.

Published: Jun 16, 2017
Length: 10 minutes (2,563 words)

Alaska’s Incredible Shrinking Village

The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, and for the 600 residents of Shishmaref, that means waves and erosion threaten to swallow the island.

Source: Sierra Magazine
Published: Jun 16, 2017
Length: 13 minutes (3,384 words)

How the U.S. Triggered a Massacre in Mexico

The inside story of a cartel’s deadly assault on a Mexican town near the Texas border — and the U.S. drug operation that sparked it.

 

Source: ProPublica
Published: Jun 12, 2017
Length: 38 minutes (9,500 words)

The Shelf Life of John Mackey

Whole Foods’ eccentric founder changed the way Americans consume food. Can he survive the Wall Street forces that now want to consume him?

Author: Tom Foster
Source: Texas Monthly
Published: Jun 15, 2017
Length: 33 minutes (8,335 words)

The Tears of Denis Johnson

The writer showed his students and friends how to remain an artist, even when one becomes a kind of cult figure.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jun 16, 2017
Length: 18 minutes (4,500 words)

Filling The Gap

“Dental refugees” from America are crossing the border to Mexico for inexpensive dental care. Buzzfeed travels to “Molar City,” Los Algodones, just across the border from Yuma, Arizona: “The dental Shangri-la of the Mexican desert that’s doing what nobody in Washington has done: keeping American mouths healthy and happy at a fraction of the price.”

Source: BuzzFeed
Published: Jun 15, 2017
Length: 12 minutes (3,100 words)