The True Story of the Fugitive Drug Smuggler Who Became an Environmental Hero

When Florida drug trafficker Raymond Stansel was busted in 1974, he disappeared, changed his identity, and escaped to the dense rainforest along the Daintree River in Far North Queensland, Australia. But instead of laying low, he started an ecological tour company and viable business, becoming invested in the environmental protection of the region.

Published: Jan 16, 2017
Length: 21 minutes (5,449 words)

Finalists for the 2017 National Magazine Awards

Congrats to the 2017 Ellies finalists! ASME has provided a list of nominees with links to stories.

Author: Editors
Published: Jan 19, 2017

Arab Past, American Present: My Family’s Invisible History

America is a nation of immigrants, yet the country treats immigrants with increasing hostility. Recounting her Syrian family’s move to the US, writer Lauren Alwan wrestles with her own Arab identity, and she explores the ways immigrants shed their culture in order to assimilate, and the generational effects of invisibility.

Source: Catapult
Published: Jan 17, 2017
Length: 11 minutes (2,950 words)

Stop Making Sense, or How to Write in the Age of Trump

An essay on the importance of embracing in literature the conflict and destruction likely to arise in America in the coming four years. The piece is written from the perspective of a Bosnian-born novelist who got stuck in the United States in 1992 because of conflict in his native country that upended everything he felt sure of.

Source: Village Voice
Published: Jan 17, 2017
Length: 10 minutes (2,737 words)

The Great Exception

“We’ve got the scientists. We’ve got the universities. We have the national labs. We have a lot of political clout and sophistication for the battle. And we will persevere,” says California governor Jerry Brown. This first piece in a series explores the relationship between the Golden State and Donald Trump’s Washington.

Author: Andy Kroll
Published: Jan 17, 2017
Length: 20 minutes (5,064 words)

Joe Biden: ‘I Wish to Hell I’d Just Kept Saying the Exact Same Thing’

The vice president looks back — and forward. Veteran journalist Jonathan Alter’s exit interview with Joe Biden.

Published: Jan 17, 2017
Length: 8 minutes (2,163 words)

How Designers Engineer Luck Into Video Games

Humans have taken the reins from the gods, and luck has become a design tool capable of changing players’ experiences and expectations.” A look at how game developers strike a balance between luck and fairness.

Source: Nautilus
Published: Jan 12, 2017
Length: 10 minutes (2,671 words)

What We Get Wrong About Hannah Arendt

The lessons we are drawing from her work may not be the one we most need to learn.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 17, 2017
Length: 6 minutes (1,500 words)

Dweller on the Threshold: On Being Trans, But Not Having Always Known

A raw, honesty essay on coming to terms with gender identity and trying to navigate existence in a culture fraught with issues around gender and sexuality. “I’m still not sure whether I’ll ever be ready to gain male privilege, to part with cis privilege.”

Source: Entropy
Published: Jan 16, 2017
Length: 13 minutes (3,479 words)

The Hermit Who Inadvertently Shaped Climate-Change Science

Billy Barr moved into a remote part of the Rocky Mountains in search of solitude over 40 years ago. To avoid boredom, he documented snow levels, animal sightings, and the date flowers first bloomed. “…collectively his work has become some of the most significant indication that climate change is rearranging mountain ecosystems more dramatically and quickly than anyone imagined.”

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Jan 12, 2017
Length: 7 minutes (1,883 words)