You Don’t Have to Be a Superhero

“Recent onscreen depictions of autistic adults reflect our growing understanding of a lifelong condition.”

Source: Vulture
Published: Feb 17, 2021
Length: 8 minutes (2,217 words)

Il Maestro

Martin Scorsese on “content,” the films of Federico Fellini, and the art of cinema.

Published: Feb 16, 2021
Length: 19 minutes (4,876 words)

Smashed

“How prohibition came to Andhra Pradesh, and how it’s going.”

Source: Fifty Two
Published: Feb 11, 2021
Length: 26 minutes (6,598 words)

The Untold History of America’s Zero-Day Market

“The lucrative business of dealing in code vulnerabilities is central to espionage and war planning, which is why brokers never spoke about it—until now.”

Source: Wired
Published: Feb 14, 2021
Length: 18 minutes (4,708 words)

Binders Full of Men

In an excerpt from her new book on fertility, feminism, and queer family-building, Jennifer Berney explores the possibilities of sperm banks.

Source: Longreads
Published: Feb 9, 2021
Length: 19 minutes (4,976 words)

The Snowy Countries Losing Their Identity

“Hartig’s research has linked unusually cool summer temperatures in Sweden to increased antidepressant use – an observation he says he would expect to apply to warmer winter temperatures too, which he suggests may exacerbate the already high incidence of depression during the winter. “We are really losing the qualities of the seasons that we value most,” Hartig says.”

Source: BBC
Published: Feb 15, 2021
Length: 6 minutes (1,600 words)

Cold and Alone on Engle Peak

How rescuers saved a Bonners Ferry man and his 16-year-old daughter after a ski accident in Montana’s backcountry.

Published: Feb 14, 2021
Length: 15 minutes (3,810 words)

Living in New York’s Unloved Neighborhood

“But the neighborhood used to feel to me like a rough part of a softer place, and nowadays the roughness feels more general, and this makes it harder to cheer for a neighborhood that is so loud and dirty and uninterested in or unfit for human life.”

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Feb 8, 2021
Length: 19 minutes (4,900 words)

Shortcuts to Identity: How We Tell Asian American Stories

“When it comes to bubble tea and Amy Tan, I’ve taken different stances, but the two have much in common. They’ve both become shorthands of some vaguely ‘Asian American thing.'”

Author: Simon Han
Source: LitHub
Published: Feb 12, 2021
Length: 9 minutes (2,471 words)

Meet the Undercover Anti-Fascists

Deplatform Hate is a group of “anti-fascist researchers and activists who infiltrate and expose Proud Boys, neo-Nazis, militias, and other members of the violent far right.”

Author: Andy Kroll
Source: Rolling Stone
Published: Feb 14, 2021
Length: 22 minutes (5,526 words)