The Tech Elite’s Quest to Reinvent School in Its Own Image

The creator of online education juggernaut Khan Academy has started a brick-and-mortar school in Silicon Valley. But can tech’s disruption culture create a stable learning environment?

Author: Jason Tanz
Source: Wired
Published: Oct 26, 2015
Length: 15 minutes (3,990 words)

Get Up, Stand Up

Stephen writes about how the Black Lives Matter movement uses social media to organize, along with technology’s role in the civil rights movement of the ’60s.

Source: Wired
Published: Oct 21, 2015
Length: 10 minutes (2,544 words)

For the Love of Duke

A West Virginia woman falls in love with a mysterious man online, then gets roped into a global scam.

Source: Wired
Published: Oct 9, 2015
Length: 23 minutes (5,982 words)

Who Won Science Fiction’s Hugo Awards, and Why It Matters

Controversy at the Hugo Awards, which has been plagued by accusations by a faction of mostly white male authors who argue that storytelling has taken a backseat to identity politics.

Source: Wired
Published: Aug 24, 2015
Length: 18 minutes (4,708 words)

An Alternative-Medicine Believer’s Journey Back to Science

How the parents of two autistic sons found—and lost—faith in the alternative medicine movement.

Source: Wired
Published: Apr 29, 2015
Length: 14 minutes (3,660 words)

Disney’s $1 Billion Bet on a Magical Wristband

Disney has spent a billion dollars engineering, testing and implementing the MagicBand at Disney World. The deceptively simple looking rubber wristbands connect wearers to a vast and powerful system of sensors throughout the park. Their aim is to remove all the friction from the theme park experience: you can swipe onto rides, avoid long lines, and even purchase a soda, all with a flick of the wrist. Is this the future?

Source: Wired
Published: Mar 10, 2015
Length: 16 minutes (4,090 words)

The Rise and Fall of Redbook

Why the shutdown of myRedBook.com—a Bay Area site that catered to sex workers and their clients—actually made sex workers less safe.

Source: Wired
Published: Feb 24, 2015
Length: 13 minutes (3,289 words)

Young, Attractive, and Totally Not Into Having Sex

Demisexuals, gray-asexuals, and other sexual identities on the spectrum.

Source: Wired
Published: Feb 18, 2015
Length: 9 minutes (2,294 words)

Nerd Cruise

An essay about what 800 nerds on a fan cruise taught the writer about life, the universe and snorkeling.

Source: Wired
Published: Dec 19, 2014
Length: 24 minutes (6,000 words)

The Laborers Who Keep Dick Pics and Beheadings Out of Your Facebook Feed

Adrian Chen travels to the Philippines, where he meets the employees who work for content moderation companies that scrub objectionable content from social media sites.

Source: Wired
Published: Oct 23, 2014
Length: 12 minutes (3,169 words)