Finding My Florida

A region-by-region travelogue of Jason Diamond’s road trip through the Sunshine State. Driving through Florida from top to bottom helps Diamond better understand a state with a variety of image problems—a state everyone else in his family eventually migrated to—and the ways in which he might and might not have fit in if he’d ever chosen to stay.

Published: May 23, 2017
Length: 12 minutes (3,123 words)

The ‘Artwashing’ of America: The Battle for the Soul of Los Angeles Against Gentrification

Gentrification is a global socioeconomic problem. These are the people fighting it in Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights, where the overwhelming majority of residents are Latino renters living on the poverty line, and especially susceptible to being driven out.

Source: Newsweek
Published: May 21, 2017
Length: 18 minutes (4,563 words)

‘The Internet Is Broken’: @ev Is Trying to Salvage It

As Twitter, Facebook, and Google try to deal with their unexpected toxicity, the internet continues to reward extremism at the expense of quality, depth, and thoughtfulness. In The New York Times, David Streitfeld reflects on what social media has wrought on society by profiling Twitter co-founder Evan Williams’ attempts to course-correct with Medium.

Published: May 20, 2017
Length: 10 minutes (2,574 words)

Love and Death

When a controlling Canadian neurosurgeon was charged with murdering his wife, a brilliant family doctor, Canada had to stare in the violent face of the patriarchy one more time.

Source: Toronto Life
Published: May 17, 2017
Length: 18 minutes (4,626 words)

A Pet Tortoise Who Will Outlive Us All

“It’s humbling to care for an animal that reminds you, each day, of your own imminent death.”

Published: May 17, 2017
Length: 12 minutes (3,147 words)

The Spirit of ’77: How the Blazers Won Portland

Beyond the food carts, the bike lanes, the tired use of the suffix –andia, is a basketball team that helps unite this surprisingly sporty city. This is their story. I didn’t read it. I was too busy hand-grinding my coffee beans.

Published: May 15, 2017
Length: 15 minutes (3,969 words)

They Call It Canaan

In the aftermath of disaster, as new communities thousands-strong coalesce in the countryside around Port-au-Prince, Haitians ask: what makes a city?

Source: VQR
Published: Apr 3, 2017
Length: 29 minutes (7,451 words)

Pew Research

Jeff Sharlet’s review of Frances FitzGerald’s new book, The Evangelicals, is itself an important history lesson on American evangelism and politics.

Published: May 16, 2017
Length: 14 minutes (3,682 words)

The Secret Life of Urban Crows

On the surprising social arrangements and habits of crows, who recognize and remember individual people and hold funerals to honor their dead — a phenomenon that is helping scientists like Kaeli Swift to understand how intelligent creatures process death. Feed a crow and she will gift you with keys and candy — tokens of her appreciation. Treat her poorly and she and her corvid compatriots may mob you on sight.

Source: Seattle Met
Published: May 17, 2017
Length: 13 minutes (3,280 words)

Slop Machines

In the world capital of decadence, one Las Vegas “farm” has built an empire monetizing buffet waste, and its porcine feedback loop keeps the masses gorging.

Source: Eater
Published: May 16, 2017
Length: 12 minutes (3,021 words)