The Dark Origins of Conjugal Visits

An in-depth look at the history of conjugal visits, and how they originated in American racism.

Source: Priceonomics
Published: Sep 21, 2015
Length: 11 minutes (2,890 words)

The Road to Damascus

Austin Tice heeded a calling to become a war reporter in Syria. His stories became front-page news, and then he disappeared.

Source: Texas Monthly
Published: Sep 17, 2015
Length: 36 minutes (9,030 words)

The Radical Pessimism of Dashiell Hammett

The stories of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler once wrote, “gave murder back to the kind of people that commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse.”

Published: Sep 22, 2015
Length: 18 minutes (4,696 words)

Was Tom Hayes Running the Biggest Financial Conspiracy in History?

How a British trader manipulated the Libor rate, an important financial benchmark considered by some to be “the world’s most important number.”

Published: Sep 13, 2015
Length: 37 minutes (9,372 words)

The Avenger

Ken Dornstein’s brother David was killed in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, and he’s spent most of his life searching for the truth.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Sep 21, 2015
Length: 41 minutes (10,307 words)

What Happened After My Kidnapping

Bradford Pearson was abducted and robbed at gunpoint in West Philadelphia in 2006. He tries to track down the men who did it.

Published: Sep 21, 2015
Length: 19 minutes (4,777 words)

Seven Hikers’ Descent into Doom at Zion National Park

The Los Angeles Times reconstructs the final hours of the seven experienced hikers who lost their lives last week in a flash flood at Zion National Park.

Published: Sep 20, 2015
Length: 9 minutes (2,265 words)

Telling JJ

How a ten-year-old learns that she has HIV.

Source: Washington Post
Published: Sep 18, 2015
Length: 20 minutes (5,100 words)

Making More Magazines: A Reading List

This reading list includes an archived examination of Ms. and an update regarding Tiger Beat; a feminist-food magazine; a defunct magazine for sex workers and their supporters; and a lesbian/queer magazine for denizens of D.C. and beyond.

Source: Longreads
Published: Sep 20, 2015

The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration

“Our carceral state banishes American citizens to a gray wasteland far beyond the promises and protections the government grants its other citizens. Banishment continues long after one’s actual time behind bars has ended, making housing and employment hard to secure. And banishment was not simply a well-intended response to rising crime. It was the method by which we chose to address the problems that preoccupied [Daniel Patrick] Moynihan, problems resulting from ‘three centuries of sometimes unimaginable mistreatment.'”

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Sep 14, 2015
Length: 75 minutes (18,800 words)