The Oysters That Knew What Time It Was

“Are we autonomous, self-running machines, or is life in constant, subtle communication with the Earth, sun, moon, and even stars?”

Source: Wired
Published: Sep 1, 2020
Length: 18 minutes (4,581 words)

Extreme Heat Is Here, and It’s Deadly

“For many, the present is already feeling pretty dystopian.” Arizona and regions across the U.S. are seeing record-high temperatures — and the heat will only intensify. At High Country News, Jessica Kutz reports that climate fiction, Indigenous architecture, and a robot named MaRTy are a few key things that can prepare us for a hotter future.

Published: Sep 1, 2020
Length: 25 minutes (6,440 words)

The House That Carving Built

“An expert woodcarver can take a block of wood and make it look alive…A beginner who spent last summer at the Folk School, shares this appreciation — not only of carving but of the non-competitive and life-giving work he learned there.”

Published: Sep 1, 2020
Length: 26 minutes (6,550 words)

A Lover’s Blues: The Unforgettable Voice of Margie Hendrix

Remembering the woman who outsang Ray Charles.

Source: Longreads
Published: Sep 2, 2020
Length: 14 minutes (3,700 words)

Tragedy on Lake Joe

How a boating accident caused a storm amongst Ontario’s cottage-country elite.

Source: Toronto Life
Published: Aug 24, 2020
Length: 15 minutes (3,847 words)

The Privileged Have Entered Their Escape Pods

“There’s no Dropbox plan that will let us upload body and soul to the cloud. We are still here on the ground, with the same people and on the same planet we are being encouraged to leave behind.” Author and media theorist Douglas Rushkoff asks: how much are we allowed to use technology and our wealth to isolate ourselves from the pandemic and the troubles of our world?

Source: OneZero
Published: Sep 1, 2020
Length: 9 minutes (2,401 words)

Objectivity Is a Privilege Afforded to White Journalists

“Under the banner of diversity, racialized people are told to bring ourselves and our perspectives. But, if we bring too much of them, we get held back.”

Source: The Walrus
Published: Aug 21, 2020
Length: 20 minutes (5,000 words)

Back to the Land

Alice Driver shares the story of her dad’s wish to build his own tomb on his own land. “He wanted his death, like his life, to be a work of art—a tomb he designed and filled with ceramics—and one that would allow him to define death on his own terms.”

Source: Oxford American
Published: Sep 25, 2020
Length: 7 minutes (1,914 words)

On Witness and Respair: A Personal Tragedy Followed By Pandemic

“The acclaimed novelist lost her beloved husband—the father of her children—as COVID-19 swept across the country. She writes through their story, and her grief.”

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Sep 1, 2020
Length: 8 minutes (2,146 words)

Fever in the Woods

“Tucked far away with my children, this is where I feel safest and most afraid.”

Published: Aug 26, 2020
Length: 14 minutes (3,691 words)