Why Is Melissa Broder So Sad Today?

Inside the world of Twitter’s favorite depressive.

Source: Elle
Published: Mar 15, 2016
Length: 17 minutes (4,331 words)

Zika’s Ground Zero

At the center of the outbreak in Brazil researchers are painstakingly trying to unspool a medical mystery that some say is reminiscent of the early study of the AIDS virus.

Published: Feb 29, 2016
Length: 22 minutes (5,612 words)

A Journey to the Medical Netherworld

Motluk recounts her quest to find a diagnosis for her daughter’s mysterious illness.

Source: Hazlitt
Published: Mar 14, 2016
Length: 36 minutes (9,127 words)

Adam Neumann’s $16 Billion Neo-Utopian Play To Turn WeWork Into WeWorld

Inside the cult of WeWork.

Source: Fast Company
Published: Mar 14, 2016
Length: 19 minutes (4,936 words)

A Loaded Gun: The Real Emily Dickinson

An excerpt from A Loaded Gun, by Jerome Charyn, who writes that Emily Dickinson was not just “one more madwoman in the attic,” but rather a messianic modernist, a performance artist, a seductress, and “a woman maddened with rage—against a culture that had no place for a woman with her own fiercely independent mind and will.”

Published: Mar 15, 2016
Length: 25 minutes (6,471 words)

Time Off the Bench

On the social lives of Supreme Court justices.

Source: Washington Post
Published: Mar 1, 2016
Length: 8 minutes (2,100 words)

His Saving Grace

Cooking saved chef Curtis Duffy from a turbulent childhood, but it also exacted a price.

Author: Kevin Pang
Source: Chicago Tribune
Published: Feb 14, 2013
Length: 28 minutes (7,200 words)

Doughnuts, Witches and Start-Ups: Five Stories About Secret Subcultures

“I’ve packed this list full of success stories, start-ups, witchcraft and comedy.”

Source: Longreads
Published: Mar 13, 2016

Will the Los Angeles River Become a Playground for the Rich?

The revitalization of LA’s neglected riverfront has gone from social-justice crusade to money-soaked land grab. Kreitner offers a nuanced account of the river’s history, and its place in the city.

Source: The Nation
Published: Mar 10, 2016
Length: 18 minutes (4,602 words)

The First Time Texas Killed One of My Clients

An attorney remembers the life of a death row inmate killed by the state of Texas.

Source: Texas Observer
Published: Mar 11, 2016
Length: 19 minutes (4,884 words)