Undetected

“Prior to his arrest, local authorities had dismissed nearly all of those incidents as an unusual spike in natural deaths—a run of bad luck. But public records and interviews reveal that, time after time, investigators in Dallas made critical mistakes and overlooked or ignored signs of foul play.”

 

Author: Lise Olsen
Source: Texas Observer
Published: Feb 8, 2021
Length: 15 minutes (3,762 words)

Once Upon a Time in Central Florida

“Inside Give Kids the World Village, where the ice cream is unlimited, nightly tuck-ins from six-foot bunny rabbits are complimentary, and Santa Claus visits every Thursday.”

Source: AFAR
Published: Feb 3, 2021
Length: 20 minutes (5,000 words)

Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird Are Goals

“Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe both had Hall of Fame–worthy careers before they met. But to reach new, boundary-obliterating levels of achievement on and off the field, they needed each other. And, as they tell Emma Carmichael, their work is just getting started.”

Source: GQ
Published: Feb 9, 2021
Length: 21 minutes (5,324 words)

Stories of Slavery, From Those Who Survived It

“The Federal Writers’ Project narratives provide an all-too-rare link to our past.”

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Feb 9, 2021
Length: 29 minutes (7,250 words)

The Limits of the Lunchbox Moment

“The story of being bullied in the cafeteria for one’s lunch is so ubiquitous that it’s attained a gloss of fictionality.”

Source: Eater
Published: Feb 8, 2021
Length: 13 minutes (3,400 words)

Ecologists Buy 1,000-Acre Blue Gum Plantation and Transform it Into Wetland it Once Was

It’s not easy for a small, science-based environmental organisation like Nature Glenelg Trust to buy a 1,035-acre blue-gum plantation, strip it of trees, allow it to flood, and transform it back into wetlands.

Source: ABC News
Published: Feb 7, 2021
Length: 8 minutes (2,238 words)

The Ballad of Justin Townes Earle

“He was a brilliant songwriter who built his own legend but couldn’t outrun the darkness that came with it. Earle’s wife, friends and collaborators recall his magnetic personality, the real-life stories behind his songs, and his heartbreaking final days.”

Source: Rolling Stone
Published: Jan 15, 2021
Length: 22 minutes (5,506 words)

I Can’t Complain But if I Could …

“I may scream into a pillow,  or stare out into the void, or get stoned out of my mind, or even weep a little. But I won’t complain.”

Source: The Cut
Published: Feb 5, 2021
Length: 7 minutes (1,983 words)

Hawkeye Elegy: A Collision of Pandemic, Disaster, and Polarization in the Heartland

“Last summer a monster storm tore across Iowa, leaving billions of dollars damage in its wake. It was a brutal blow to an economy already reeling from a deadly pandemic and a state divided by politics like never before.”

Author: Erika Fry
Source: Fortune
Published: Feb 4, 2021
Length: 31 minutes (7,761 words)

In Good Faith

Taken to its logical conclusion, it means believing that anybody who has enough faith can be healed. This approach relegates disability and illness almost entirely to the realm of the magical, the supernatural.

Source: Maisonneuve
Published: Feb 2, 2021
Length: 23 minutes (5,957 words)