The Scammers Gaming India’s Overcrowded Job Market

In parts of India where jobs are so scarce that college graduates apply to be street sweepers, people are willing to work as scammers who extract money from gullible Americans by impersonating US tax officers and taking their computers hostage with fake viruses. They also prey on other Indians.

Source: The Guardian
Published: Jan 2, 2018
Length: 16 minutes (4,099 words)

American Reams: Why a ‘Paperless World’ Still Hasn’t Happened

In a world full of smartphones, laptops, and tablets, the paper industry is showing surprising resiliency.

Source: The Guardian
Published: Dec 29, 2017
Length: 15 minutes (3,854 words)

Bussed Out

For thirty years, many American cities have run “homeless relocation programs,” where homeless people are given free bus tickets to move somewhere else. The Guardian takes the first close look at how this all does and does not work.

Source: The Guardian
Published: Dec 20, 2017
Length: 19 minutes (4,827 words)

Portugal’s Radical Drugs Policy Is Working. Why Hasn’t the World Copied It?

Portugal’s drug epidemic started in the 1980s, and HIV and overdoses skyrocketed. After decriminalizing all substances in 2001, the country started focusing on harm-reduction instead of punishment, but it was cultural shifts that truly improved the country’s situation. Is Portugal’s success too culturally bound to work elsewhere?

Source: The Guardian
Published: Dec 5, 2017
Length: 19 minutes (4,840 words)

‘A Tale of Decay’: The Houses of Parliament Are Falling down

As politicians dither over repairs, the risk of fire, flood or a deluge of sewage only increases. But fixing the Palace of Westminster might change British politics for good – which is the last thing many of its residents want.

Source: The Guardian
Published: Dec 1, 2017
Length: 22 minutes (5,571 words)

How the Sandwich Consumed Britain

To perfect a culinary staple as ubiquitous and timeless as the sandwich “is a question of using tenacity, knowledge, know-how, flair.”

Author: Sam Knight
Source: The Guardian
Published: Nov 24, 2017
Length: 25 minutes (6,285 words)

How to Sell a Country: The Booming Business of Nation Branding

What do you know about Minsk, the capital of Belarus? Or the nation of Georgia? If you know anything, it’s either a oversimplification like ‘danger’ or ‘forested’ or an enticing tagline about wine and prosperity. An entire niche industry helps create identities, sometimes to attract tourists, sometimes, as with Libya, to scrub its image clean.

Source: The Guardian
Published: Nov 7, 2017
Length: 23 minutes (5,810 words)

The War Against Pope Francis

A progressive reformer wins a contentious vote and he immediately begins to shake things up, overturning thousands of years of tradition. Pope Francis, the “cool pope,” came to his role as the head of the Catholic church in the age of Obama. But now, with conservative backlashes underway in countries around the world, nowhere is that backlash more conservative than in the Vatican. Accusing a pope of heresy is a “nuclear option,” but in 2017, it appears the nuclear option is back on the table.

Source: The Guardian
Published: Oct 27, 2017
Length: 22 minutes (5,500 words)

‘Reality Shrivels. This Is Your Life Now’: 88 Days Trapped in Bed to Save a Pregnancy

When Katherine Heiny’s water broke during her 26th week of pregnancy, her doctor told her that in order to save her baby she would have to be almost totally immobilized  “in Trendelenburg,” an aggressive form of bed rest in which her legs were raised above her head. She remained on bed rest for 88 days and found comfort reading the memoir of Steve Callahan, a sailor who survived adrift at sea for 74 days.

Source: The Guardian
Published: Oct 24, 2017
Length: 20 minutes (5,000 words)

The Science of Spying: How the CIA Secretly Recruits Academics

The US spy agency has spent millions of dollars creating whole scientific conferences in order to gather intelligence and get nuclear scientists from countries like Iran to defect.

Source: The Guardian
Published: Oct 10, 2017
Length: 16 minutes (4,100 words)