Can America’s Farms Survive the Threat of Deportations?

Increasing deportations under Trump not only threaten the well-being of America’s undocumented farm workers, they threaten the very system that keeps America’s farms running, tax dollars flowing and food prices low. Here’s what’s happening in New York’s rural Hudson Valley.

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Jun 6, 2017
Length: 16 minutes (4,062 words)

The Fight for Health Care Has Always Been About Civil Rights

“Of all the inequalities that exist” said Martin Luther King in 1966, “the injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhuman.” The ACA did the most in American history to extend coverage to people of color; “they have never been closer both to racial equality of, access and to, the federal protection of health care as a civil right. But if Republicans have their way, that dream will be deferred.”

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Jun 27, 2017
Length: 10 minutes (2,500 words)

My Family’s Slave

Alex Tizon tells the story of his family’s slave, Lola. A utusan (“person who takes commands”), Lola was given as a gift from his grandfather to his mother in 1943, when Lola was 18 years old. Lola worked — unpaid — for Alex and his family for 56 years. In a turbulent childhood where his parents were out of the house for days at a time, Lola was a constant source of love and devotion for Alex and his three siblings. In this moving piece, Alex attempts to understand his parents’ point of view, their motivations, and reconcile himself with Lola’s life of servitude.

Author: Alex Tizon
Source: The Atlantic
Published: Jun 1, 2017
Length: 34 minutes (8,703 words)

‘America’s Deaf Team’ Tackles Identity Politics

In order to survive, Gallaudet University has to blend a diverse student body from very different backgrounds: deaf culture and hearing culture. Can football players show the school how?

Source: The Atlantic
Published: May 10, 2017
Length: 28 minutes (7,030 words)

Alec Baldwin Gets Under Trump’s Skin

Admittedly, it doesn’t take much, but Baldwin satirizes and critiques our sensitive, insensitive President with panache, raising himself to the role of America’s Deflator in Chief.

Source: The Atlantic
Published: May 1, 2017
Length: 27 minutes (6,963 words)

Torching the Modern-Day Library of Alexandria

“Somewhere at Google there is a database containing 25 million books and nobody is allowed to read them.”

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Apr 20, 2017
Length: 27 minutes (6,975 words)

This Article Won’t Change Your Mind

The facts on why facts alone can’t fight false beliefs.

Author: Julie Beck
Source: The Atlantic
Published: Mar 13, 2017
Length: 24 minutes (6,136 words)

What Happens If a Nuclear Bomb Goes Off in Manhattan?

Researcher William Kennedy, who along with Andrew Cooks, is mining data from past tragedies such as the 1917 Halifax Explosion, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina to run computer simulations studying how humans would respond after a nuclear attack on Manhattan, New York.

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Mar 15, 2017
Length: 10 minutes (2,710 words)

The Stubborn Optimist

A profile of late author and activist Grace Paley, and her perseverance in fighting uphill political battles, on the page and in real life.

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Mar 14, 2017
Length: 8 minutes (2,018 words)

Welcome to Pleistocene Park

In Arctic Siberia, Russian scientists are trying to stave off catastrophic climate change—by resurrecting an Ice Age biome complete with lab-grown woolly mammoths.

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Mar 8, 2017
Length: 36 minutes (9,040 words)