How Rival Gardens of Eden in Iraq Survived ISIS, Dwindling Tourists, And Each Other

Against all odds, Iraq’s religious tourism infrastructure has endured.

Source: Longreads
Published: May 10, 2016
Length: 16 minutes (4,132 words)

Matthew Griffin: Notes from My Book Tour

The Bachelor’s Jake Pavelka, canine escape artists, William Faulkner, fire-safety tips — they’re all building blocks of one strange, beautiful book tour for Matthew Griffin, which he recounts with grace and humor. “[I]n Knoxville, we stay at a friend’s house, and when her coffee maker starts to drip with that mechanical click, the smell fills her kitchen in a way it never does at home, in my normal life, and I lean against the counter and talk to her and start to feel, really feel, like I’m in one of those Folger’s commercials where a brother in the military surprises his family by coming home at Christmas and awakening them to his presence with the smell of brewing coffee, and I am filled with goodwill and comfort and warm friendship and also a deep understanding that coffee is the most wonderful thing and a sign that maybe there might possibly be a God after all.”

Source: LitHub
Published: May 5, 2016
Length: 7 minutes (1,814 words)

The Day We Discovered Our Parents Were Russian Spies

Alex and Tim Foley, whose family’s story partly inspired The Americans, grapple with their broken identities and their parents’ lifetime of lies.

Source: The Guardian
Published: May 7, 2016
Length: 23 minutes (5,882 words)

America, Pizza Hut, and Me

“Once dimly foreign, pizza had succeeded in convincing people it could be white. It was aspirational that way. I wanted to do the same thing.” Jaya Saxena reconciles her New Yorker-ness and Indian-ness with a childhood love of the doughy, pizza-like food of Pizza Hut, finding a way to hold on to her many identities simultaneously.

Source: Eater
Published: Mar 2, 2016
Length: 8 minutes (2,235 words)

Is Britney Spears Ready to Stand on Her Own?

Pop singer Britney Spears has been controlled by a court-approved conservatorship for several years, which has divested her of most of her autonomy.

Published: May 4, 2016
Length: 13 minutes (3,490 words)

Six Stories for Mother’s Day

This week, I’ve collected stories about new moms, missing moms, dead moms and boomer moms, if only to demonstrate that there is no one way to have a mother or not have a mother.

Source: Longreads
Published: May 8, 2016

‘You Want A Description Of Hell?’ Oxycontin’s 12-Hour Problem

An investigation into America’s bestselling painkiller, Oxycontin. Reporters look through a trove of documents showing how the drugmaker Purdue Pharma’s deceptive marketing of Oxycontin has contributed to the prescription drug epidemic.

Published: May 5, 2016
Length: 27 minutes (6,778 words)

I Was Prince’s Private Chef

“One time he decided to throw a late-night party for every A-list celebrity in town—and only gave me two days’ notice. Another time he asked for a birthday cake—at 11 PM (I bought it at the grocery store). He liked to eat healthfully but then he’d ask for quiche and a milkshake. Once he wanted a chocolate fountain but when I asked where to put it, he looked at me, waited a beat, and said, ‘I do the music.’”

Source: Food & Wine
Published: May 3, 2016
Length: 6 minutes (1,667 words)

The Imperfect Victim

Galen Baughman was an active spokesman for sex offender rights, and then he lost his credibility.

Source: Slate
Published: Apr 29, 2016
Length: 15 minutes (3,779 words)

Cruising Through the End of the World

What happens when cruise ship tourism descends on the communities of the Northwest Passage?

Published: May 5, 2016
Length: 20 minutes (5,000 words)