What Iowa Is Losing as My Hometown Newspaper Crumbles

“Readers noticed the paper’s sloppiness first—how there seemed to be twice as many typos as before, and how sometimes the articles would end mid-sentence instead of continuing after the jump. The newspaper’s remaining reporters are overworked; there are local stories they’d like to tell but don’t have the bandwidth to cover. The Hawk Eye’s current staff is facing the impossible task of keeping a historic newspaper alive while its owner is attempting to squeeze it dry.”

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Oct 5, 2021
Length: 13 minutes (3,328 words)

At Heritage, Pokémon Cards Are the New Bitcoin

“At an auction in January, a card from the game’s first edition, which depicted the golden dragon Charizard and was graded in perfect 10.0 condition, sold for $300,000. The most expensive cards from the ‘Unlimited’ edition wouldn’t fetch quite that much, but a lucky buyer could still find himself with a card that would buy him, say, a mid-range sedan.”

Source: Texas Monthly
Published: Oct 5, 2021
Length: 10 minutes (2,543 words)

Did I Want Tony Stark—or Want to Be Him?

“When I think about the time before I ever uttered the words ‘I am a lesbian,’ I don’t think about a closet. I think about a costume trunk.”

Source: Catapult
Published: Oct 4, 2021
Length: 14 minutes (3,605 words)

White Riot

“In 1992, thousands of furious, drunken cops descended on City Hall—and changed New York history.”

Published: Oct 5, 2021
Length: 17 minutes (4,250 words)

Michaela Coel and Donald Glover Have a Lot to Talk About

In 2020, Michaela Coel and Donald Glover had a Zoom conversation. British GQ published it all.

Source: British GQ
Published: Sep 29, 2021
Length: 31 minutes (7,896 words)

‘Sun-Powered Orgasms Are Fantastic’: Why I Went to Live in a Desert Cave

“I walk out of my cave and down to the Valley of the Kings, as I call it. There are no houses, no people. Some think the “wild west” still exists in the US, but it’s hard to find a place where you can see for miles and miles without human habitation. At Garth’s, it could be the 1800s, or 10 million years ago – or 100 years into the future.”

Source: The Guardian
Published: Oct 2, 2021
Length: 12 minutes (3,061 words)

The Faker

“When the show began, a constellation of folks who’d known Alfredo, including many people he’d screwed over, mingled over his work. At first he’d turned art into crime. Now he was turning his crime into art. Prison was ‘the best residency Alfredo could have dreamed of,’ says Fuentes.”

Published: Sep 30, 2021
Length: 13 minutes (3,472 words)

Searching for Mr. X

“For eight years, a man without a memory lived among strangers at a hospital in Mississippi. But was recovering his identity the happy ending he was looking for?”

Source: The Atavist
Published: Sep 30, 2021
Length: 36 minutes (9,232 words)

An Interview with Chuck Palahniuk

“At exactly 1:05pm, the Prius was outside my Airbnb, as was Chuck, in a pressed white shirt and pastel turquoise shorts. He treated me to a tuna sandwich at a nearby bakery. We then drove back and sat down for three hours of conversation in the secluded bamboo-walled yard, which happened to be right next to where he attends his AA meetings.”

Source: The Believer
Published: Sep 27, 2021
Length: 22 minutes (5,659 words)

They Went to Bible College to Deepen Their Faith. Then They Were Assaulted—and Blamed for It.

“At Moody Bible Institute, purity culture and complementarianism have worked together to forgive abusers and punish the abused.”

Source: Mother Jones
Published: Sep 30, 2021
Length: 34 minutes (8,500 words)