Racing Thoughts: Our College Pick

A new Longreads college pick featuring Boston University’s The Daily Free Press.

Source: Longreads
Published: Apr 24, 2015

How a Long-Lost L.A. Home Was Found 1,770 Miles Away

Revered Californias architects Greene & Greene built the house in Hollywood just four years into the twentieth century. So how did it end up being rediscovered in Canada in the early 1970’s, derelict and abandoned?

Published: Apr 21, 2015
Length: 15 minutes (3,800 words)

Town Waiting for an Eruption Found It After Firing Its First Black Police Officer

In the fall of 2013, Gerry Pickens became Orting, Washington’s first black policeman. He didn’t last there for very long.

Author: Eli Saslow
Source: Washington Post
Published: Apr 18, 2015
Length: 21 minutes (5,278 words)

A Goodbye to Ambien in Dubai

“My stomach drops. I specifically Google “Ambien in Dubai.” I discover it’s illegal there. Of course it is. Even people who come with their pills in the prescription bottle and a note from their doctor? Jail time. It’s a gray area, some people say on the message boards. I am pretty sure “Gray Area” is not a term used in Sharia Law. (I have been following Amanda Knox since day one and she is innocent.) I’d rather not do a real life reenactment of Brokedown Palace. I don’t want to be a story people learn from. Why is this alarming? Amy, don’t you know you’re not supposed to take Ambien every night? Yes, yes I have heard that. But no one ever told me that if you take it every night and want to get off of it, the withdrawal is comparable to that of heroin.”

Source: The Hairpin
Published: Jul 19, 2011
Length: 13 minutes (3,376 words)

The Skin I’m In

A black Canadian man reflects on a lifetime of police interrogations and the high social cost of police carding.

Source: Toronto Life
Published: Apr 21, 2015
Length: 18 minutes (4,700 words)

War for Hire

A look at the largely unregulated multi-billion dollar private security industry, and its implications.

Published: Apr 22, 2015
Length: 11 minutes (2,870 words)

Exile of the Bohemians

A brief history of the Bohemian, and whether artists in San Francisco have a future.

Source: Radio Silence
Published: Apr 23, 2015
Length: 21 minutes (5,330 words)

Bank of the Underworld

Liberty Reserve was a digital currency somewhat similar to bitcoin. Users could also store their money in the system making it, in effect, a bank, a digital currency, and a payment method in one. Was it also a global money-laundering operation?

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Apr 21, 2015
Length: 30 minutes (7,550 words)

The Upwardly Mobile Barista

Starbucks and Arizona State University launched an experiment to help workers get college degrees—but paying for college was just one of many challenges that employees face in trying to go back to school.

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Apr 22, 2015
Length: 35 minutes (8,811 words)

Surely You Can’t Be Serious: An Oral History of Airplane!

The original creators and cast of the satirical disaster film Airplane! share stories about how the hit 1980 comedy came together.

Source: The AV Club
Published: Apr 17, 2015
Length: 62 minutes (15,708 words)