I Was a Teenage Conspiracy Theorist

““Our minds work in particular ways that make us all receptive to conspiracy thinking,” says Rob Brotherton, a psychologist and the author of Suspicious Minds: Why We Believe Conspiracy Theories. “

Source: The Atlantic
Published: May 13, 2020
Length: 15 minutes (3,881 words)

Death of a Smart City

“Alphabet bet big in Toronto. Toronto didn’t play along.”

Source: OneZero
Published: Aug 12, 2020
Length: 24 minutes (6,038 words)

The Furious Hunt for the MAGA Bomber

“Scarred by trauma and devoted to Trump, a man began mailing explosives to the president’s critics on the eve of an election. Inside the race to catch him.”

Source: Wired
Published: Aug 12, 2020
Length: 32 minutes (8,200 words)

Flimsy plastic knives, a single microwave, and empty popcorn bags: How 50 inmates inside a Michigan prison prepared a feast to celebrate the life of George Floyd

Michael “Thompson came up with a way to mark Floyd’s death inside: a special meal that he’d share with the inmates in a “celebration” honoring Floyd’s life…After they returned their cells, each man sat in silence for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. And then they began to eat.”

Source: The Counter
Published: Aug 6, 2020
Length: 13 minutes (3,397 words)

Stacey Abrams and Janelle Monáe on the Fight for Democracy in an Election Season for the Ages

‘The former Georgia Representative talks to singer and fellow Atlantan Monáe about voter suppression, Joe Biden, and whether Abrams herself will one day run for president. (The answer: “Absolutely.”)’

Published: Aug 10, 2020
Length: 20 minutes (5,152 words)

Sharing Food, Building Resilience

“If someone wants to know how a community is doing, the response, Larson explains, could be, ‘Well, how many times did people share food with each other here?’ Each community’s constellation of shared food, labor, and equipment, like nets or boats, is unique and reveals different levels of interconnection and community cohesion.”

Source: Hakai Magazine
Published: Aug 4, 2020
Length: 11 minutes (2,939 words)

For Domestic Workers, Apps Provide Solace — But Not Justice

Apps can and do help abused migrants find one another and escape abusive situations, but they ‘cannot fix structural inequalities, missing institutional capacity or a lack of human intent.'”

Source: Rest of World
Published: Aug 4, 2020
Length: 15 minutes (3,998 words)

TikTok and the Evolution of Digital Blackface

“TikTok, it turned out, was reminiscent of Vine in more ways than one. The common denominator of many of its viral moments is an unspoken partiality to Black cultural expression. It works like an accelerant.”

Source: Wired
Published: Aug 4, 2020
Length: 25 minutes (6,458 words)

Simone Biles Would Like to Thank Herself

Biles is a Black athlete who is a woman, and for many, one of the gravest sins a Black woman can commit, besides beating white people at a sport they had previously dominated, is to appear insufficiently humble and grateful to white people for their success.

Source: Vice Magazine
Published: Aug 3, 2020
Length: 30 minutes (7,547 words)

How the Pandemic Defeated America

“The coronavirus found, exploited, and widened every inequity that the U.S. had to offer.”

Author: Ed Yong
Source: The Atlantic
Published: Aug 3, 2020
Length: 32 minutes (8,196 words)