Inside the 21st-Century British Criminal Underworld

Rather than the classic white, pub-going thugs focusing on a single product, be it guns or drugs, England’s new criminal organizations are multinational, tech-savvy, and diversified, aka “polycriminal,” and they have helped make London the world capital of money-laundering.

Source: The Guardian
Published: Jul 4, 2019
Length: 16 minutes (4,242 words)

The Big Scoop: What A Day With an Ice-Cream Man Taught Me About Modern Britain

“Tony Roach holds Eastbourne together with engine grease and dairy cream.”

Author: Sirin Kale
Source: The Guardian
Published: Jul 9, 2019
Length: 7 minutes (1,962 words)

“Children Are Being Poisoned”: California Moms Lead the Way to Pesticide Ban

After years of work, activists got the state of California to ban the dangerous pesticide chlorpyrifos, which drifts widely through the state’s Central Valley. These activists are now taking aim at other chemicals and hope their grassroots coalition shows others how to battle the farmers and policy makers who act like human health is just the cost of doing business.

Author: Sam Levin
Source: The Guardian
Published: Jun 27, 2019
Length: 5 minutes (1,436 words)

Are Your Tinned Tomatoes Picked By Slave Labor?

Italian farmers get 7.5 cents for a kilo of tomatoes. Consumers pay €2, for a 2,567% markup. It’s a mafia-ridden system that can’t exist without exploiting immigrant labor. “In accepting these industrial prices, we’re actually selling the skin of the farm-workers.”

Source: The Guardian
Published: Jun 20, 2019
Length: 38 minutes (9,504 words)

The Price of Plenty: How Beef Changed America

Before there was modern agribusiness or assembly-line production plants, there was the American beef industry.

Source: The Guardian
Published: May 7, 2019
Length: 17 minutes (4,415 words)

Have Hen Will Travel: The Man Who Sailed Round the World With a Chicken

You could be sad that this chicken is far more well-traveled than you are, or you could be delighted at the bond between a man and his hen. After skimming the day’s other headlines (and seeing Monique the hen in her sweater) I choose the latter.

Source: The Guardian
Published: Apr 21, 2019
Length: 10 minutes (2,615 words)

Shades of Black

The Guardian US’s “Shades of black” series of 27 pieces explores colorism within black and brown communities and highlights its connections to desirability and self-esteem.

Source: The Guardian
Published: Apr 8, 2019

Can the world quench China’s bottomless thirst for milk?

In China, milk represents modernity and progress. But the radical plan to triple the nation’s consumption has serious environmental consequences.

Source: The Guardian
Published: Mar 29, 2019
Length: 22 minutes (5,619 words)

Fifty Shades of White: The Long Fight Against Racism in Romance Novels

“I’m writing to let you know how much I enjoyed Whispers of Love. It’s my first African American romance. I guess I might sound bigoted, but I never knew that black folks fall in love like white folks.”

Source: The Guardian
Published: Apr 4, 2019
Length: 31 minutes (7,932 words)

How to Move a Masterpiece: The Secret Business of Shipping Priceless Artworks

No one wants to be the courier on duty when a screwdriver accidentally stabs through the crate holding a Monet.

Source: The Guardian
Published: Mar 21, 2019
Length: 22 minutes (5,656 words)