Urban Outfitters Bares All

Inside the secretive and mysterious world of Urban Outfitters, youth-culture behemoth and $3.4 billion empire.

Published: Aug 20, 2016
Length: 20 minutes (5,062 words)

Meet the Worst Ants in the World

The fascinating history of the Argentine ant, a species whose global reach and dominance matches only our own.

Source: Ars Technica
Published: Aug 12, 2016
Length: 20 minutes (5,193 words)

Giving up alcohol opened my eyes to the infuriating truth about why women drink

“How did you not see this before? I ask myself. You were too hammered, I answer back. That summer I see, though. I see that booze is the oil in our motors, the thing that keeps us purring when we should be making other kinds of noise.”

Source: Quartz
Published: Aug 21, 2016
Length: 13 minutes (3,250 words)

Everyone is Altered

The secret Hollywood procedure that has fooled us for years: “beauty work,” or the Photoshop of the Silver Screen. “[T]he first rule of beauty work is: Don’t talk about beauty work.”

Source: mashable.com
Published: Dec 1, 2014
Length: 10 minutes (2,707 words)

Burj Khalifa: Alone at the Top of the World

Why are people building elaborate residential towers for no one to live in?

Source: Catapult
Published: Aug 16, 2016
Length: 8 minutes (2,079 words)

The Mask of Deception: The Ultimate Test to My Recovery From Porn Addiction

Novelist Ben Obler was feeling secure in his recovery from porn addiction. Then along came Franny, to test it.

Source: Longreads
Published: Aug 22, 2016
Length: 23 minutes (5,908 words)

Did I Kill Gawker?

Read, a former editor-in-chief of Gawker, examines the rise and fall of the polarizing site.

Author: Max Read
Published: Aug 19, 2016
Length: 25 minutes (6,400 words)

On Beauty: A Reading List About Makeup

Beauty criticism analyzes the ways we can subvert a society that would have us subsumed by self-loathing. We use the tools we’ve been given. Makeup, then, can be a weapon. And it can be damn fun.

Source: Longreads
Published: Aug 21, 2016

For Gord: 27 Mini-Essays about the Tragically Hip

As Canada’s most beloved band prepares for their final concert, 27 writers pay homage to the Tragically Hip’s long, prolific career.

Source: BuzzFeed
Published: Jun 2, 2016
Length: 47 minutes (11,827 words)

Why Am I So Fat?

Writer and performer Sara Benincasa writes a brilliant, biting, and hilarious response to the guy who wrote her asking, “Why did you gain so much weight?”

Source: Medium
Published: Aug 18, 2016
Length: 14 minutes (3,700 words)