The Trash Heap Has Spoken

The power and danger of women who take up space.

Published: Feb 13, 2017
Length: 14 minutes (3,731 words)

The Compost King of New York

What happens to food scraps? Charles Vigliotti, chief executive of American Organic Energy, has a vision to turn food waste, a largely untapped resource, into clean energy.

Published: Feb 15, 2017
Length: 13 minutes (3,373 words)

Trilby, the Novel That Gave Us ‘Svengali’

George du Maurier’s Trilby, published in 1894, became one of the most popular novels of its time. The story introduced us to a young heroine, Trilby, and a memorable villain, Svengali, whose names have since taken on lives of their own.

Source: Longreads
Published: Feb 16, 2017
Length: 7 minutes (1,788 words)

The Battle for the Soul of San Francisco

From its economy to its geology, California has always been a place of dynamic upheaval, but as more affluent residents move into San Francisco’s impoverished Tenderloin neighborhood, tensions rise. One minister’s inclusive, politically charged church not only offers services to the area’s disenfranchised, it helps the Bay’s tech workers get to know their new neighbors and integrate themselves more constructively into the fabric of Tenderloin life.

Source: Wired
Published: Feb 7, 2017
Length: 21 minutes (5,250 words)

‘The Great Shame of Our Profession’

When an adjunct literature instructor from Harvard won a prestigious literary criticism award, he chose to deliver a scathing critique of his discipline as his acceptance speech.

Published: Feb 12, 2017
Length: 11 minutes (2,993 words)

Failure to Cooperate

The indignity and discomfort of being accused of theft: a short story about a long shift at the coffee shop everyone loves to hate.

Author: Susan Read
Source: Broken Pencil
Published: Feb 1, 2017
Length: 12 minutes (3,081 words)

House of Cards: The Politics of Calling Card Etiquette in Nineteenth-Century Washington

In the early republic, social media had its own crucial importance — although what the media employed was not the tweet, but little bits of pasteboard.

Source: Common-Place
Published: Aug 16, 2016
Length: 21 minutes (5,445 words)

Driving America

“Liberated by technology and disillusioned of the road-trip myth, the latter-day road tripper must face directly the fact that traveling in itself is phenomenally boring.”

Source: The Point
Published: Jan 30, 2017
Length: 9 minutes (2,455 words)

Drowning statistics are a deadly reminder of our complex relationship with water

Fenella Souter reports in detail on what it’s like to drown, through the harrowing personal experience of a woman named Merav, who in a bid to show off to her boyfriend 40 years ago, jumped into the surf at Gunnamatta Beach in Victoria, Australia, and lived to regret it.

Published: Feb 11, 2017
Length: 12 minutes (3,242 words)

Phones are now indispensable for refugees

The Economist reports on how refugees prize mobile phone connection — even over food. Phones are their primary way to stay connected with family at home as they enter “informational no-man’s land,” not knowing who to trust, and where to go. Phones help them stay motivated with photos of family and successful migrants, and offer a means to contact smugglers to help them with their journey.

Source: The Economist
Published: Feb 11, 2017
Length: 7 minutes (1,884 words)