Bill Cosby’s Legacy, Recast

The Washington Post’s exhaustive history of Cosby’s career and the sexual-assault allegations that coincided with it. Sixteen women have now stated publicly that Cosby sexually assaulted them.

Source: Washington Post
Published: Nov 23, 2014
Length: 32 minutes (8,051 words)

The Secret Life of Passwords

Urbina talks to a range of people to reveal a little bit about how we come up with passwords. “Humans like, even need, to imbue things with meaning, I suggested. We’re prone to organizing symbols into language.”

Author: IAN URBINA
Published: Nov 19, 2014
Length: 21 minutes (5,252 words)

Firestone and the Warlord

ProPublica and Frontline’s investigation into how the U.S. tire and rubber company Firestone ended up partnering with warlord Charles Taylor, who was taking over Liberia during the civil war in the early 1990s. In 1992 the company agreed to pay taxes to Taylor’s rebel government, and “over the next year, the company doled out more than $2.3 million in cash, checks and food to Taylor.”

Source: ProPublica
Published: Nov 22, 2014
Length: 79 minutes (19,990 words)

Chattanooga versus the Supreme Court: How a Black Man Was Deprived of a Fair Trial

The story of the 1906 lynching of a young black man named Ed Johnson, who had been accused of rape. The case went to the Supreme Court and called into question whether he could get a fair trial.

Published: Nov 21, 2014
Length: 21 minutes (5,429 words)

Hello Kitty and the Power of Cute

A look inside the first ever Hello Kitty convention and a history of the brand.

Source: Racked
Published: Nov 18, 2014
Length: 27 minutes (6,864 words)

A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA

A freshman at University of Virginia is brutally assaulted by seven men at a frat party. When she tries to report it, she discovers a culture that is complicit in covering it up. Update: Rolling Stone’s editors are now raising questions about events described in this story—but exactly which parts remains unclear.

Source: Rolling Stone
Published: Nov 21, 2014
Length: 37 minutes (9,296 words)

The Real Lolita

Did the 1948 abduction of eleven-year-old Sally Horne change the course of twentieth-century literature?

Source: Hazlitt
Published: Nov 20, 2014
Length: 35 minutes (8,846 words)

Stop Trying to Save the World

How the ‘Big Idea’ is destroying international development: “The point is, we don’t know what works, where, or why. The only way to find out is to test these models—not just before their initial success but afterward, and constantly.”

Published: Nov 17, 2014
Length: 24 minutes (6,112 words)

Profiling the Difficult Subject: Our College Pick

Hau Chu’s profile of a nontraditional student at George Mason University.

Source: Longreads
Published: Nov 20, 2014

Humane Endeavor

An interview with doctor and New Yorker writer Atul Gawande about end-of-life care, his writing career, and his early days on Bill Clinton’s political team.

Published: Nov 20, 2014
Length: 17 minutes (4,478 words)