I Saw the World on Cruise Ships

“High school didn’t serve up much adventure, so Devin Murphy signed up to do grunt work on expedition ships that sailed to Alaska, Iceland, Antarctica, and other far-flung places. Turned out to be a pretty great idea.”

Source: Outside
Published: Jan 19, 2021
Length: 21 minutes (5,250 words)

After Killing His Cousin, Clyde Meikle Found Purpose in Prison Through Service. Now He’s Asking to Go Home.

Incarceration led to a rebirth for Clyde Meikle.

Published: Jan 16, 2021
Length: 20 minutes (5,242 words)

Back from the Afterlife

“Misadventures in near-death experience.”

Source: The Baffler
Published: Jan 20, 2021
Length: 22 minutes (5,521 words)

The Day My Voice Broke: What an Injury Taught Me About the Power of Speech

“I had always known that the voice is a kind of aural fingerprint, something unique to every individual and from which listeners draw strong inferences. But in “speaking around” that injury, I was apparently projecting a new personality into the world: a more monotone, less enthusiastic, less engaged personality.”

Source: The Guardian
Published: Jan 19, 2021
Length: 18 minutes (4,655 words)

Where Surveillance Cameras Work But the Justice System Doesn’t

“Mexico City has one of the most ambitious and sophisticated video surveillance systems in the world. But it hasn’t stopped crime.”

Source: Rest of World
Published: Jan 19, 2021
Length: 23 minutes (5,759 words)

How Nothingness Became Everything We Wanted

“The culture of negation inspires a taste for nothingness and glorifies numbness.”

Published: Jan 19, 2021
Length: 15 minutes (3,899 words)

Among the Insurrectionists

“The Capitol was breached by Trump supporters who had been declaring, at rally after rally, that they would go to violent lengths to keep the President in power. A chronicle of an attack foretold.”

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Jan 15, 2021
Length: 49 minutes (12,408 words)

My Sister Was Disappeared 43 Years Ago

“A casualty of Argentina’s so-called Dirty War, Isabel haunted my childhood like a ghost. Then I started searching for her.”

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Jan 17, 2021
Length: 14 minutes (3,508 words)

My Struggle with Sobriety

“In my experience, addiction is this: the perpetual throwing of oneself over a cliff. It can take many forms—alcohol, drugs, sex, even front line activism—but the goal is always to put oneself at risk, to run from being still. Stillness means that, eventually, you must turn to the truth.”

Source: The Walrus
Published: Jan 8, 2021
Length: 20 minutes (5,099 words)

Having and Being Had

“What does it say about capitalism that we have money and want to spend it but we can’t find anything worth buying?”

Author: Eula Biss
Source: Granta
Published: Jan 8, 2021
Length: 7 minutes (1,975 words)