How a ‘Snowdenista’ Kept the NSA Leaker Hidden in a Moscow Airport

Two years ago, activist and WikiLeaks editor Sarah Harrison spirited Edward Snowden out of Hong Kong and into safety in Russia, but not before the pair spent nearly six weeks living in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.

Source: Vogue
Published: Feb 18, 2015
Length: 14 minutes (3,700 words)

The Bomb in the Bag

How America’s first suicide attack changed one man’s fortune forever.

Source: Longreads
Published: Mar 4, 2015
Length: 14 minutes (3,509 words)

‘A Taste of Power’: The Woman Who Led the Black Panther Party

Elaine Brown was the first and only woman to lead the male-dominated Black Panther Party. She looks back on Jean Seberg, COINTELPRO, and internal divisions within the organization.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 1, 1992
Length: 29 minutes (7,440 words)

The Brief Life and Private Death of Alexandria Hill

A two-year-old girl died just nine months after the government had taken her from her family. Her safety had been outsourced to a for-profit corporation. In this piece, Mother Jones investigates what the death of Alexandria Hill says about the privatization of foster care.

Source: Mother Jones
Published: Feb 26, 2015
Length: 28 minutes (7,000 words)

From Guilty Pleasure to Emmy Awards

On the delightfully weird history of Lifetime movies, and how the network has changed over the last 25 years.

Author: Emily Yahr
Source: Washington Post
Published: Jan 15, 2015
Length: 12 minutes (3,020 words)

The Rise and Fall of Redbook

Why the shutdown of myRedBook.com—a Bay Area site that catered to sex workers and their clients—actually made sex workers less safe.

Source: Wired
Published: Feb 24, 2015
Length: 13 minutes (3,289 words)

The First Slavery Museum

For reasons that no one can quite explain, a wealthy white New Orleans man has spent the last fifteen years and more than $8 million of his personal fortune building the first museum in America dedicated to telling the story of slavery.

Published: Feb 26, 2015
Length: 21 minutes (5,370 words)

The Art of Agenting

A conversation with literary agent Chris Parris-Lamb about the state of the publishing industry and the problem with NaNoWriMo: “I frankly think that initiatives like National Novel Writing Month are insulting to real writers. We don’t have a National Heart Surgery Month, do we?”

Published: Mar 2, 2015
Length: 23 minutes (5,839 words)

A Psychedelic Murder Story

Hallucinogenic ayahuasca tea has long played a religious role in Brazil, but did it also contribute to the brutal death of a celebrated Brazilian artist?

Source: Financial Times
Published: Feb 27, 2015
Length: 15 minutes (3,960 words)

Kelly Link Is Beloved, But Still Underrated: A Primer on My Favorite Living Short Story Writer

“Bear with me as I describe my own fandom of Kelly Link.”

Source: Longreads
Published: Feb 28, 2015