The Shaming of the Cherry Sisters

How “vaudeville’s worst act” fought for fame and respect on the stage.

Source: Longreads
Published: Oct 6, 2016
Length: 15 minutes (3,795 words)

Speak, Memory: Can Artificial Intelligence Ease Grief?

“It has been less than a year since Mazurenko died, and he continues to loom large in the lives of the people who knew him. When they miss him, they send messages to his avatar, and they feel closer to him when they do. ‘There was a lot I didn’t know about my child,’ Roman’s mother told me. ‘But now that I can read about what he thought about different subjects, I’m getting to know him more. This gives the illusion that he’s here now.'”

Source: The Verge
Published: Oct 6, 2016
Length: 20 minutes (5,083 words)

I Covered The Braves For A Newspaper That Didn’t Exist

Braun recounts his time pretending to work as a staff photographer for a fake neighborhood newspaper to gain up-close access to the Atlanta Braves.

Author: Phil Braun
Source: Deadspin
Published: Oct 5, 2016
Length: 8 minutes (2,176 words)

The Gruesome November Night in One of Washington’s Wealthiest Suburbs

A husband and wife are tortured and nearly stabbed to death by a former employee’s husband. Was it revenge, or an addict’s “medication-induced delirium”?

Source: Washingtonian
Published: Oct 2, 2016
Length: 25 minutes (6,332 words)

Why a Controversial Palestinian History Class at Berkeley Was Canceled, Then Reinstated

When UC Berkeley, once a hotbed of political activism and progressive thinking, tried to stop an undergraduate peace and conflict studies major from teaching a class on Palestinian history, it fueled a hot-button debate about Anti-Semitism, academic freedom and the ways universities can foster inclusive intellectual discourse.

Source: Newsweek
Published: Oct 5, 2016
Length: 8 minutes (2,235 words)

Solving Climate Change With Beer From Patagonia’s Food Startup

The founder of the outdoor apparel company talks about its line of food, Patagonia Provisions, and their vision of sustainable, regenerative agriculture using a new food crop and wild grain called Kernza.

Source: Bloomberg
Published: Oct 3, 2016
Length: 18 minutes (4,630 words)

The Family That Would Not Live

What can haunted houses and their history tell us about American history and culture? Writer Colin Dickey sets out across America to investigate America’s haunted spaces in order to uncover what their ghost stories say about who we were, are, and will be.

Source: Viking
Published: Oct 5, 2016
Length: 16 minutes (4,181 words)

Adventures in Pornland

One sex-positive woman’s exploration of Feminist porn reveals a lot about the complexity of feminist thinking, mainstream porn’s intrinsic violence and sexism, and the enduring hope of remaking sex work.

Source: Granta
Published: Aug 9, 2016
Length: 23 minutes (5,793 words)

Chronicling Mexico City Nights: The Grave Shift’s Violence

“When you work the night shift for too long, the murders start to link up with one another, blending cause and effect in a centrifugal force that gnaws away at the city. The veteran reporters start to see this; the man gunned down one night is related to an ongoing gang dispute, which originates in another murder from the previous week, and so on. The crimes dot their personal maps. Driving by Mosqueta Street, David points to a specific building and recalls the night he photographed an injured man that had been hit by a car. It was only later that his editor pointed out to him that the victim was in fact José Luis Calva Zepeda, also known as the Guerrero Cannibal, one of contemporary Mexico’s most notorious serial killers, accused of eating parts of his victims, all young women. When the police located him, he jumped out of his apartment window and ran across the street, before being struck by a car and apprehended.”

Source: The Towner
Published: Oct 5, 2016
Length: 13 minutes (3,390 words)

The Team of Men Behind Rachel Brewson, the Fake Woman Whose Trump-Fueled Breakup Went Viral

Liberal Rachel Brewson became an internet — and eventually, television — celeb after sharing the story of her tumultuous relationship with a Republican named Todd. How is she different from a thousand other personal essay writers? Rachel was never real.

Source: Jezebel
Published: Oct 4, 2016
Length: 20 minutes (5,198 words)