In a given year, some 3,500 unpaid prisoners make up Florida’s shadow economy. State road crews and “community work squads” incarcerated by the Department of Corrections subsidize local governments from the Panhandle to Miami-Dade: powering waste and public works departments, grooming cemeteries and school grounds, maintaining and constructing buildings, treating sewage and collecting trash.
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Posted inStory
Japan: A Longform Reading List of Longform Writing
Armchair travel is more important than ever, now that pandemic has forced us to stay indoors. Reading can take you across the ocean.
Posted inCulture, Nonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes
Working To Live Often Means Giving Up Your Life
You can’t have work-life balance when work dictates the balance.
Posted inStory
The Man Who’s Going to Save Your Neighborhood Grocery Store
American food supplies are increasingly channeled through a handful of big companies: Amazon, Walmart, FreshDirect, Blue Apron. What do we lose when local supermarkets go under? A lot — and Kevin Kelley wants to stop that.
Posted inEditor's Pick
In San Francisco, Making a Living From Your Billionaire Neighbor’s Trash
Amid the mansions and new tech money, an entire economy has developed to gather discarded items and resell them for a few hundred dollars a week, if they’re lucky. “It’s a civic service as I see it,” said Nick Marzano, who publishes a magazine about San Francisco trash pickers. “Rather than this stuff going to […]
Posted inFeature, Nonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes, Science & Nature
On a Wild Patch of Mississippi Soil
Camping a wooded island along the lower Mississippi River introduces one writer to a land of legend and wildness.
Posted inNonfiction
The 25 Most Popular Longreads Exclusives of 2019
The original reporting, personal essays, columns, and collaborations that were our most-read stories of the year.
Posted inFeature
Tea, Biscuits, and Empire: The Long Con of Britishness
The soft-focus Britain of Downton Abbey bears little resemblance to the real Britain collapsing under the weight of racism, austerity, and COVID-19. As Brexit plods on, it’s time for an honest reckoning of the history and future of this outsize little island.
Posted inNonfiction
Against Hustle: Jenny Odell Is Taking Her Time at the End of the World
The attention economy is killing us and the planet. Artist and writer Jenny Odell talks about why slowing down could be the only way to survive.
Posted inBusiness & Tech, Nonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes
How Southern Cities Are Joining the Knowledge Economy
Greenville, South Carolina has revitalized its city center by incubating start-ups. Can other Southern cities do the same?
