The False Promise of DNA Testing

DNA typing has long been used as irrefutable proof of guilt or innocence in the criminal-justice system, but errors made in crime labs have many questioning its effectiveness.

Source: The Atlantic
Published: May 17, 2016
Length: 25 minutes (6,401 words)

The Long Rescue

A father goes to Nepal in search of his missing children, who have been kidnapped and forced into slave labor.

Published: May 16, 2016
Length: 28 minutes (7,223 words)

A Country Verging on Collapse: A Reading List on Venezuela

Five stories about people trying to live amid Venezuela’s instability and chaos, from a manufacturing entrepreneur jailed over toilet paper in his factory’s restrooms to an American attorney killed in a violent robbery.

Source: Longreads
Published: May 18, 2016

The Waco Horror

Jesse Washington shares the name of the victim of one of the most infamous lynchings in America. In Waco, Texas, he traces the history of the 1916 lynching, hears the stories of families and residents who haven’t forgotten, and confronts his own past and the story behind his name.

Source: The Undefeated
Published: May 17, 2016
Length: 24 minutes (6,003 words)

Meet the Ungers

In Maryland, an unlikely experiment has taken place: violent offenders, expected to be incarcerated forever, are being released from prison. Jason Fagone explores how it happened.

Source: HuffPost
Published: May 17, 2016
Length: 28 minutes (7,016 words)

Unchain My Heart: On the Emotional Effectiveness—and Lingering Sexism—of Jewish Divorce

Sari Botton explores the dark side of a tradition that has for millennia subverted women’s rights.

Source: Longreads
Published: May 17, 2016
Length: 20 minutes (5,211 words)

Austin, Indiana: the HIV Capital of Small-Town America

“The kind of multigenerational drug use he was describing was not uncommon in their town, Austin, in southern Indiana. It’s a tiny place, covering just two and a half square miles of the sliver of land that comprises Scott County. An incredible proportion of its 4,100 population—up to an estimated 500 people—are shooting up. It was here, starting in December 2014, that the single largest HIV outbreak in U.S. history took place. Austin went from having no more than three cases per year to 180 in 2015, a prevalence rate close to that seen in sub-Saharan Africa.”

Source: Mosaic Science
Published: May 3, 2016
Length: 17 minutes (4,422 words)

Half-Truth and Reconciliation: After the Rwandan Genocide

“Trauma is not an ordinary condition. It implies an injured society, vulnerable to further harm. The kind of government such a society needs is not meek or modest but immense, powerful, its presence unquestionable. It is in this extraordinary condition of trauma that civil liberties might begin to look frivolous. “

Source: LitHub
Published: Apr 28, 2016
Length: 10 minutes (2,532 words)

As Women Scorned

We’re supposed to follow a certain narrative when our partners leave us. What happens when we flip the playbook?

Source: Hazlitt
Published: Jan 4, 2016
Length: 10 minutes (2,554 words)

Hell on Wheels: Port Authority’s Broken Promise Is Choking Newark’s Kids

“Truck after truck slowly makes its way through traffic, trailing exhaust. Kids run across a busy street to play with the wary chickens in a community garden. Nearby, an entire alley is filled with murals: One depicts a figure crouching in a gas mask, surrounded by garbage and smog.” How unregulated emissions and a political turf war is destroying the health of a Newark, New Jersey community.

Source: Village Voice
Published: May 3, 2016
Length: 11 minutes (2,856 words)