Amor Prohibido

Twenty years after Selena’s death, devotion to the legendary singer is as strong as ever. But who owns her legacy?

Source: Texas Monthly
Published: Aug 20, 2015
Length: 36 minutes (9,000 words)

What’s in a Necronym?

Jeannie Vanasco on being named after the daughter her father lost, and artists named after dead siblings.

Source: The Believer
Published: Aug 20, 2015
Length: 17 minutes (4,360 words)

The Late, Great Stephen Colbert

“I asked him if he could help me understand that better, and he described a letter from Tolkien in response to a priest who had questioned whether Tolkien’s mythos was sufficiently doctrinaire, since it treated death not as a punishment for the sin of the fall but as a gift. ‘Tolkien says, in a letter back: “What punishments of God are not gifts?” ‘ Colbert knocked his knuckles on the table. ‘ “What punishments of God are not gifts?” ‘ he said again. His eyes were filled with tears. ‘So it would be ungrateful not to take everything with gratitude. It doesn’t mean you want it. I can hold both of those ideas in my head.'”

Source: GQ
Published: Aug 19, 2015
Length: 23 minutes (5,765 words)

A Social History of Jell-O Salad

How Jell-O salad became a mid-century American icon, before falling out of public favor.

Author: Sarah Grey
Source: Serious Eats
Published: Aug 18, 2015
Length: 10 minutes (2,550 words)

Will the Pope Change the Vatican? Or Will the Vatican Change the Pope?

Pope Francis’s emphasis on serving the poor over enforcing doctrine has inspired both joy and anxiety in Roman Catholics, and the church establishment.

Published: Aug 19, 2015
Length: 21 minutes (5,350 words)

The Hardest Test

A new STEM-focused integrated middle school in the low-income neighborhood of Bayview in San Francisco is giving hope to a community after decades of educational failures.

Published: Aug 17, 2015
Length: 18 minutes (4,676 words)

Here’s What’s Missing from ‘Straight Outta Compton’

Dee Barnes, former host of hip-hop show “Pump It Up!” who was assaulted by Dr. Dre in the early 1990s, looks back on her own experience, N.W.A.’s attitude toward women, and why the movie ignored women artists like JJ Fad and Tairrie B, who were protégés of the group.

Author: Dee Barnes
Source: Gawker
Published: Aug 18, 2015
Length: 11 minutes (2,822 words)

Pregnant? Scared? Need Options? Too Bad.

A yearlong investigation into crisis pregnancy centers.

Source: Cosmopolitan
Published: Jul 14, 2015
Length: 17 minutes (4,285 words)

Just Below the Surface

Dubious wilderness, cutthroat business, and human casualties in the war over the fabled Californian Oyster.

Published: Aug 18, 2015
Length: 20 minutes (5,042 words)

The Speakeasy

A lifelong comedy fan spends a week at Marty’s, a bleak Hollywood comedy club that specializes in open-mic stand-up.

Published: Jul 1, 2015
Length: 25 minutes (6,474 words)