Looking at Alaska: Seven Stories About The Last Frontier State

Alex Tizon investigates a bizarre missing persons case. Eva Holland goes snowshoe-to-shoe with some of Alaska’s boldest babes. And newly minted memoirist Blair Braverman talks about her writing process and her team of sled dogs.

Source: Longreads
Published: Aug 15, 2016

Why Are So Many Inmates Attempting Suicide at the California Institution for Women?

Something is driving female inmates at the California Institution for Women to attempt suicide at a rate five times higher than the state and national averages. Prevention is not a priority.

Source: LA Weekly
Published: Jul 20, 2016
Length: 14 minutes (3,592 words)

How To Plot A Novel

In their “How to Plot a Novel” package this week, New York magazine explores the inner workings of fiction from every angle. Christian Lorentzen analyzes how story works and affects readers. Boris Kachka provides an encyclopedia of every possible kind of plot, a history of plot, and a piece about computer mapping of story plots. Bonuses: Sadie Stein on the worst endings in history, and a round-up of quotes from famous authors about where they stand on plot as a device.

Author: Staff
Published: Aug 12, 2016

Is America Any Safer?

The United States has spent more than $1 trillion since 9/11 to protect our country and respond to acts of terrorism. Brill examines what we’ve done right, where we’ve gone wrong, and the number of security gaps we still need to fill.

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Aug 9, 2016
Length: 73 minutes (18,294 words)

The Office Politics of Workplace Fiction by Women

Women perform so many of the essential duties that compose modern bureaucracy. It’s about time the subset of American fiction you might call “office literature” started to reflect that.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Jul 27, 2016
Length: 9 minutes (2,317 words)

‘A Honeypot For Assholes’: Inside Twitter’s 10-Year Failure To Stop Harassment

The social media company’s free-speech roots, coupled with an overwhelmingly white male leadership that was blind to the problem, led to total paralysis when it came to fixing its troll problem.

Source: BuzzFeed
Published: Aug 11, 2016
Length: 23 minutes (5,881 words)

Monstrous Births

“Childbirth is not empowering. It’s grisly, frightening, and astonishing stuff.” Sarah Blackwood pushes back against the moralizing effect of birth stories.

Source: The Hairpin
Published: Aug 10, 2016
Length: 7 minutes (1,892 words)

The Devil Is Loose

Between the drug trade, immigration, Border Patrol pursuits and poverty, paramedics in the border town of Laredo, Texas get little rest but lots of respect. Law requires medics treat anyone in need, so here among the cactus and mesquite, “Border Patrol agents get spit as a topping at a local takeout joint; paramedics get discounts.”

Author: Abe Streep
Published: Aug 2, 2016
Length: 20 minutes (5,060 words)

The Secrets of the Wood Wide Web

A growing body of research is changing the way scientists think about symbiotic forest fungi, and revolutionizing our understanding of plant communication, cooperation and friendship.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Aug 7, 2016
Length: 9 minutes (2,263 words)

Walls and Fences: A Reading List

These reads explore walls and fences as physical borders, but also things we’ve built in our minds.

Source: Longreads
Published: Aug 11, 2016