The Spectacle of Crime: On Detectives, Mysteries, and Dead Girls

A reading list about fictional detectives and the authors who mastermind their literary crime-solving, as well as real-life detectives searching for the truth.

Source: Longreads
Published: Aug 29, 2016

Why a Control State Liquor Store Might Be Your Best Bet for Finding Rare and Interesting Spirits

To many liquor aficionados, living in a what’s called an “alcohol beverage control” state like Oregon, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire versus a privatized state means a bureaucratic stranglehold that limits access and options, but as one reporter shows, in some cases, government control benefits those seeking usual or high-end spirits. And no, he isn’t drunk.

Source: Serious Eats
Published: Jul 29, 2016
Length: 10 minutes (2,707 words)

The Ongoing Joke About Women And Money Isn’t Funny Anymore

An essay on money, power, marriage and gender stereotypes, and when enough is enough already.

Published: Aug 17, 2016
Length: 9 minutes (2,435 words)

What It’s Like to Be a Black Cop in Baltimore

“I don’t wanna do this shit no more.” An unfiltered account from one of America’s most troubled police departments.

Source: BuzzFeed
Published: Aug 26, 2016
Length: 10 minutes (2,536 words)

The Country Restaurant

The greatest chef you’ve never heard of harvests most of his own ingredients, cooks with everything from acorns to pine needles to hickory sap, and is booked 10 years in advance. That is, if you believe him.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Aug 22, 2016
Length: 30 minutes (7,748 words)

Gender Studies

[Fiction] While traveling to a conference, a recently dumped gender studies professor views herself in the reflection of her airport shuttle driver.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Aug 22, 2016
Length: 18 minutes (4,705 words)

Like. Ghost. Flirt: A Journey into the Social Media Lives of Teens

A fascinating deep-dive into the phones, minds and hearts of five of the most mysterious creatures on this planet: teens.

Source: Wired
Published: Aug 25, 2016
Length: 20 minutes (5,225 words)

An MIT Scientist Claims That This Pill Is the Fountain of Youth

Seemingly everyone wants to extend their lifespan, but it takes a bold, entrepreneurial scientist to sell you a pill that supposedly can do that for you. He’s staked his career on it.

Published: Aug 23, 2016
Length: 21 minutes (5,458 words)

How Guilty Should I Feel?

As Gawker retires, one of its deputy editors explores her time there, and the complex feelings she has over earning a living in journalism, a job that comes with consequences and can, she says, “sometimes feel a whole lot like tattling.” It’s fascinating.

Source: Gawker
Published: Aug 22, 2016
Length: 8 minutes (2,181 words)

Inside Facebook’s (Totally Insane, Unintentionally Gigantic, Hyperpartisan) Political-Media Machine

John Herrman meets the social media marketers whose political memes are taking over Facebook.

Published: Aug 25, 2016
Length: 17 minutes (4,436 words)