Tim Robbins’s Prison Improv Classes Make Inmates Less Likely to Re-Offend

A look at the Actors Gang Prison Project, an improv workshop actors Tim Robbins and Sabra Williams have been leading for inmates for ten years, which has been shown to reduce recidivism rates.

Published: Nov 14, 2016
Length: 8 minutes (2,092 words)

How Trump Made Hate Intersectional

“Progressives talk a lot about intersectionality — meaning, thinking about race and sex and class simultaneously — but Trump won the presidency by making hate intersectional. He encouraged sexists to also be racists and homophobes, while saying disgusting things about immigrants in public and Jews online. Hate, like love, is infectious, and it is contagious. And for so many, the adrenaline felt by blaming one group for one’s personal ills bled into blaming all the others.”

Published: Nov 9, 2016
Length: 6 minutes (1,513 words)

Final Days

“When I asked one senior Trump adviser to describe the scene inside, he responded: ‘Think of the bunker right before Hitler killed himself. Donald’s in denial. They’re all in denial.'”

Published: Oct 29, 2016
Length: 16 minutes (4,007 words)

A Kink in the Hyperloop

In 2013, Elon Musk put together a detailed proposal for a futuristic 35-minute San Francisco—L.A. commute. The idea was open-sourced, and enthralled by Musk’s vision, a venture capitalist named Shervin Pishevar started a company to bring a version of the idea to life. Like many Silicon Valley stories, this one would contain speed bumps and internal turmoil.

Published: Oct 18, 2016
Length: 20 minutes (5,248 words)

The Novelist Disguised As a Housewife

An excerpt of Ruth Franklin’s biography of Shirley Jackson, the author of seventeen books and many short stories including “The Lottery,” the bulk of which were written while she was immersed in raising—and being influenced by—her four children.

Published: Sep 27, 2016
Length: 10 minutes (2,664 words)

I Used to Be a Human Being

Retired Daily Dish blogger Andrew Sullivan’s meditation on the epidemic of digital distraction addiction—and his attempt to cure himself of it at a 10-day silent meditation retreat he attended after famously ending his 15-year blogging career.

Published: Sep 18, 2016
Length: 28 minutes (7,077 words)

The Revenge of Roger’s Angels

A disturbing must-read by Gabriel Sherman about years of sexual harassment allegations against Roger Ailes, the culture of harassment inside Fox News, and the women who finally brought him down.

Published: Sep 3, 2016
Length: 29 minutes (7,417 words)

An MIT Scientist Claims That This Pill Is the Fountain of Youth

Seemingly everyone wants to extend their lifespan, but it takes a bold, entrepreneurial scientist to sell you a pill that supposedly can do that for you. He’s staked his career on it.

Published: Aug 23, 2016
Length: 21 minutes (5,458 words)

Did I Kill Gawker?

Read, a former editor-in-chief of Gawker, examines the rise and fall of the polarizing site.

Author: Max Read
Published: Aug 19, 2016
Length: 25 minutes (6,400 words)

When JFK Airport Was Shut Down Because of a Terror Attack that Wasn’t

A false alarm in New York’s biggest airport causes stampedes and delays, and makes one passenger wonder about the War on Terror’s effect on our collective psyche.

Published: Aug 15, 2016
Length: 16 minutes (4,202 words)