What Can and Can’t be Learned From a Book

How learning to swim at 24 led Syam Palakurthy to first-hand lessons in gentrification.

Source: Longreads
Published: Nov 1, 2016
Length: 12 minutes (3,188 words)

Buck to the Future: Why the High-Tech Ideas of Buckminster Fuller Are Back In Vogue

He’s a forgotten hippie idol, a sage of 1960s counterculture. What can we learn from Bucky Fuller’s faith in technology?

Source: Aeon
Published: Oct 25, 2016
Length: 12 minutes (3,049 words)

Meet The White Nationalist Trying To Ride The Trump Train To Lasting Power

Alt-right founder Richard Spencer aims to make racism cool again.

Source: Mother Jones
Published: Oct 27, 2016
Length: 20 minutes (5,219 words)

Madam Prescient: Raising the Spirit of American Radicalism

Victoria Woodhull, a former prostitute, free-love advocate, and clairvoyant (and proponent of abolition, marriage reform, and education rights) ran for President of the US — in 1872.

Source: The Baffler
Published: Aug 15, 2016
Length: 12 minutes (3,108 words)

Donald Trump’s Companies Destroyed Emails in Defiance of Court Orders

While Donald Trump insists that Hillary Clinton should be imprisoned for destroying emails, he has routinely used stall tactics in order to erase records that courts have demanded he hand over.

Source: Newsweek
Published: Oct 31, 2016
Length: 12 minutes (3,176 words)

What Beyoncé Taught Me

Novelist Zadie Smith reflects on the connection between writing and dancing, drawing on iconic performers like Fred Astaire, Michael Jackson, and Beyoncé.

Source: The Guardian
Published: Oct 29, 2016
Length: 14 minutes (3,610 words)

Dribbling in the Dark

A year in the life of one teenager in Turkey reveals the tense relations between Turkish and Kurdish people, the challenges of creating diversity in schools, and the hard choices people make in times of war.

Published: Oct 13, 2016
Length: 22 minutes (5,508 words)

What Happens When the Police Misidentify You as the Dallas Shooter

When one person of color exercised his right to bear arms at the Dallas Black Lives Matter protest to make a point about racial injustice, the police named him as the suspect after a shooting broke out. In racially charged America, the right to bear arms does not apply equally.

Source: GQ
Published: Oct 28, 2016
Length: 8 minutes (2,147 words)

Creepypasta, Shirley Jackson, and Horror Podcasts: A Halloween Reading Guide

The spookiness doesn’t have to end with the weekend—indulge in classic creepypasta, scary podcasts, and Ms. (Shirley) Jackson on your lunch break.

Source: Longreads
Published: Oct 30, 2016

Final Days

“When I asked one senior Trump adviser to describe the scene inside, he responded: ‘Think of the bunker right before Hitler killed himself. Donald’s in denial. They’re all in denial.'”

Published: Oct 29, 2016
Length: 16 minutes (4,007 words)