For a young expat writer, strange days at a Thai newspaper: Some background is in order. I was 25 at the time, and several months before my arrival in Thailand, I wouldn’t have been able to identify its elephantine outline on a map. But I wanted to move to Thailand to soak up some of […]
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Posted inEditor's Pick
How Airbnb and Lyft Finally Got Americans to Trust Each Other
From Airbnb to Lyft to Tinder, the sharing economy is rewiring the way we interact with each other. In about 40 minutes, Cindy Manit will let a complete stranger into her car. An app on her windshield-mounted iPhone will summon her to a corner in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood, where a russet-haired woman […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Gentrification of San Francisco, Circa 1985
Stories about San Francisco’s latest wave of gentrification—perhaps exemplified by the tech bus battles—have been everywhere as of late. But this isn’t the first time critics have mourned the end of San Francisco-as-bohemian-enclave. From “Gentrification’s Price: Yuppies In, the Poor Out” which appeared in the Los Angeles Times on April 3, 1985: In short, San Francisco has become perhaps the most gentrified […]
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction
Vagabonds, Crafty Bauds, and the Loyal Huzza: A History of London at Night
In the 16th & 17th centuries, “nightwalking” was a transgressive act in a city still on the brink of total nighttime illumination, but with complex implications depending on your social status.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
How a Barista Deals With Bad Customers
Over at The Awl, Molly Osberg examines the service economy and recounts her experience working as a barista at various coffeehouses.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Recovery Puzzle
A story about the U.S. recovery. When a factory opens up in Ohio, the person in charge of hiring people for supervisor positions finds it difficult to find the right candidates to fill the roles: “Dad’s Resume,” Bernie says to himself and shakes his head. He has an idea of what kind of person Dad’s […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The End of Illth: In Search of an Economy That Won’t Kill Us
The writer looks at a network of worker-owned businesses in Cleveland called Evergreen Cooperatives, which has created environmentally sustainable jobs in low-income neighborhoods and a work environment that gives workers real input into company decisions and a share of the profits: “While about 11,000 U.S. companies offer some form of employee stock ownership, far fewer […]
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction
The Missing History of Ravensbrück, The Nazi Concentration Camp for Women
The story of the Nazis’ only concentration camp for women has long been obscured—partly by chance, but also by historians’ apathy towards women’s history. Sarah Helm writes about the camp, where the “cream of Europe’s women” were interned alongside its prostitutes, and members of the French resistance perished alongside Red Army prisoners of war.
Posted inMember Pick, Nonfiction
Glamorous Crossing: How Pan Am Airways Dominated International Travel in the 1930s
Starting with just a mail route, Juan Terry Trippe helped create a uniquely American luxury experience.
Posted inNonfiction
Long Live Grim Fandango
The greatest adventure game ever made returns from the dead.
