“It’s strange to think that the Righteous Brothers outlive my mother. Sometimes I pretend they are singing to her.”
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Cryin’, Dyin’, or Goin’ Somewhere: A Country Music Reading List
Although the sound of the music has changed, country’s themes have endured.
‘Intelligent Education’ and China’s Grand AI Experiment
Seven schools in China have installed facial recognition technology in classrooms to monitor — and score — their students. At The Disconnect, Yujie Xue reports on this “intelligent education” initiative.
Wonderful Things: The Kid Creole and the Coconuts Story
Combining island sounds with stylish clothes and an unforgettable stage presence, one of New York City’s most original bands helped influence 1980s pop culture, and they never sacrificed their unclassifiable artistic vision.
The Mortician and the Murderer
An incredible photo essay in which both the images and words tell the crazy story of imprisoned mortician David Sconce (up for parole in 2022). In the ’80s, Sconce turned his family’s California funeral home into a mass crematorium and black market body part- and organ-harvesting business.
The Rich Man and the Sea
Laurie Penny spends four days on a boat confronting the archetypal story of “man vs. blockchain.”
To Love and Protect Each Other — From Bigotry
After Jay Deitcher sits silent as his wife is verbally assaulted by his father’s racist friend, he grapples with the ways his family has been muted by trauma.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Ian Frisch, Niela Orr, Alison Fensterstock, Jill Lepore, and Austin Carr.
The Final Five Percent
If traumatic brain injuries can impact the parts of the brain responsible for personality, judgment, and impulse control, maybe injury should be a mitigating factor in criminal trials — but one neuroscientist discovers that assigning crime a biological basis creates more issues than it solves.
A Town Split By a Play About the 1980s AIDS Epidemic
Sometimes art can challenge viewers enough to change them. Sometimes art just makes the narrow-minded angry.

