The Hunt for Life Beyond Earth

strobiologists, those who study the science of life beyond Earth, are examining the following question: “Are we alone?”

Published: Jul 1, 2014
Length: 18 minutes (4,721 words)

Anxiety, Depression and OCD: Treating the Animals Inside America’s Zoos

Halberstadt meets Dr. Vint Virga and explores the scientific research into the feelings of animals. “He has treated severely depressed snow leopards, brown bears with obsessive-compulsive disorder and phobic zebras. ‘Scientists often say that we don’t know what animals feel because they can’t speak to us and can’t report their inner states,’ Virga told me. ‘But the thing is, they are reporting their inner states. We’re just not listening.'”

Published: Jul 9, 2014
Length: 27 minutes (6,821 words)

Lance Armstrong in Purgatory

John H. Richardson examines the after-life of Lance Armstrong, and our own conceptions about what happens to the great work a man has done, after a great fall.

Source: Esquire
Published: Jul 7, 2014
Length: 34 minutes (8,700 words)

Scout’s Honor

“It might have been the Friendliest Place on Earth.” The writer visits a national Jamboree for the Boy Scouts of America.

Source: Oxford American
Published: Jun 11, 2014
Length: 39 minutes (9,820 words)

Run and Gun

How a promising basketball star ended up facing drug and murder charges.

Source: Fox Sports
Published: Jun 30, 2014
Length: 30 minutes (7,537 words)

Taylor Swift Is a Music Business Genius: A Reading List

A brief guide to the music business, according to Taylor Swift: Featuring the Wall Street Journal, Planet Money and The New Yorker.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jul 7, 2014

All You Have Eaten: On Keeping a Perfect Record

Exploring the food diary as a mnemonic device. “Andy Warhol kept what he called a ‘smell collection,’ switching perfumes every three months so he could reminisce more lucidly on those months whenever he smelled that period’s particular scent. Food, I figured, took this even further. It involves multiple senses, and that’s why memories that surround food can come on so strong.”

Source: Lucky Peach
Published: Jul 7, 2014
Length: 20 minutes (5,009 words)

Saying Goodbye to God: Haredim Apostates

Young ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel learn to adapt to a new life after giving up their faith.

Author: John Reed
Source: Financial Times
Published: Jul 4, 2014
Length: 12 minutes (3,143 words)

The Game Is To Be Sold: The Long Legal Battle For ‘Skee-Ball’

How the word “skee-ball” turned into a messy trademark battle between the century-old game maker and a New York bar league of skee-ball players. “Currently, the people who play skee-ball more obsessively than probably anyone else on the planet have been challenged to snuff out the term’s trademark in court. In the process, the lawsuit has pitted ardent players against the company that has manufactured those hallowed machines since 1909.”

Source: The Classical
Published: Jul 1, 2014
Length: 9 minutes (2,387 words)

Confessional Writing Is Not Self-indulgent

The author of The Empathy Exams on the power of personal stories.

Source: The Guardian
Published: Jul 4, 2014
Length: 10 minutes (2,696 words)