BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith recalls what it was like working as a young reporter in Belarus in 2001. One of his first major stories resulted in his source being beaten and thrown in jail — or so he thought, until he discovered the truth more than 15 years later.

Big lies, small lies, lies of omission. Leslie Jamison fesses up to how lying had become a way to avoid conflict, her flaws, and having to face up to and deal with her uglier emotions.

Joan Didion didn’t shy away from criticizing everything and everyone from The Sound of Music and J.D. Salinger, and she did it with flair and a voice all her own.

The Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail is, at 54 miles, the shortest of America’s 19 National Historic Trails. It is also a hike in which the walking of it is a political act, and Rahawa Haile decides she has no choice but to hike it in the early days of the Trump Administration.

There is no denying that Tony Kushner’s play “Angels in America” is a profound work of art, but on the eve of yet another production (a Broadway run), Steven Thrasher raises a significant and frankly troubling question: as the play is (largely) filtered through the lens of white gay men, how many millions of experiences from gay people of color have been hidden from mainstream sight?

Nashville wants you to visit when you’re young, when you’re thinking about your future, perhaps even considering a move to this “it” city where Jack White and the Black Keys make their home. So the city is catering to a group that’s thinking about their future in big way: bachelorettes.

It’s no surprise that breaking into the seemingly perfect life of being an Instagram influencer takes time, money and a lot of hard work. But once you make it, is it worth it? For some, social media fame is the goal, and for others, its only the stepping stone to a “real” job.

A new generation of indigenous writers reject the aesthetics and standards of the white publishing world. And finally, the first Native-focused MFA program is here to facilitate their visions and voices, and make Native Americans more visible in literature.

When Alexander Chee’s father died at the age of 43 he didn’t leave behind a will, and his estate was divided among his wife and three children. When he turned 18, Chee was bequeathed a trust, and the first thing he bought was something he thought his father would want for him — a black Alfa Romeo.

A reported personal essay in which Janelle Harris writes about reluctantly succumbing to her need for Medicaid and the electronic equivalent of food stamps after she lost her full-time reporting job in 2012, in order to feed herself and her daughter.