The Sad and Beautiful World of Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous

Pitchfork looks at the life and work of the late musician Mark Linkous.

Author: Max Blau
Source: Pitchfork
Published: Nov 4, 2015
Length: 26 minutes (6,652 words)

Inside the Jihadi Lifestyle Magazine Wars

How English-language magazines became a battleground for the future of radical Islam.

Source: Hopes & Fears
Published: Nov 4, 2015
Length: 14 minutes (3,605 words)

Get Freaking Huge

Inside the strange saga of Jason Genova, an amateur bodybuilder whose earnest YouTube workout videos have earned him an international cult following.

Published: Nov 3, 2015
Length: 20 minutes (5,218 words)

Who Owns Molecular Biology?

Do molecular entities have inventors, and can they be owned? Inside the patent war for DNA-editing technology.

Source: Boston Review
Published: Oct 28, 2015
Length: 12 minutes (3,246 words)

Medical Research: The Dangers to the Human Subjects

Marcia Angell examines the history and ethics of clinical trials.

Published: Nov 5, 2015
Length: 12 minutes (3,031 words)

In 1972, Two U.S Representatives Boarded a Plane and Disappeared

What happened to Hale Boggs and Nick Begich? One freelance reporter has exhausted his savings and spent years of his life trying to find out.

Source: Seattle Weekly
Published: Nov 3, 2015
Length: 17 minutes (4,260 words)

Looking for Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles

Judith Freeman traces Raymond Chandler’s early days in Los Angeles and his introduction to Cissy Pascal, the much older, very beautiful woman who would later become his wife.

Source: Longreads
Published: Dec 5, 2007
Length: 38 minutes (9,603 words)

The First Person on Mars

“Evghenia Is on Mars” is a plot-rich fantasy Twitter account purportedly run by a female scientist delivering dispatches from Mars in 140-character bursts. In an unlikely but thoroughly wonderful essay, Smarsh uses Evghenia’s story as a jumping-off point to interrogate her own life, and the strange parallels in both their journeys.

Source: Vela Mag
Published: Oct 20, 2015
Length: 20 minutes (5,208 words)

Out from Under

A Detroit family fights to win their house back in the Wayne County foreclosure auction after being scammed by a sub-subprime entrepreneur.

Published: Nov 4, 2015
Length: 25 minutes (6,292 words)

Marwencol

In 2000, Mark Hogancamp was brutally attacked by five men at a bar, which caused him to lose nearly all his memories. He coped by building a miniature—and extraordinary—World War II town called Marwencol.

Author: Jon Ronson
Source: The Guardian
Published: Oct 28, 2015
Length: 10 minutes (2,547 words)