“During the pandemic, in an unheard-of experiment, incarcerated women in Arizona were moved to a prison camp on a multimillion-dollar private farm, where hazardous, meagerly paid work changed their lives forever.”
labor
Posted inEditor's Pick
Edifice Complex
“Restoring the term “burnout” to its roots in landlord arson puts the dispossession of poor city dwellers at its center.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Departures
“Tang tells the heartbreaking story of one woman, Daisy, who’s given up so much. Sadly, it’s the story for so many.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Marvel Has a VFX Problem
If you’ve seen any of the recent movies coming out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you might have noticed something’s up — or, rather, down. That something is the quality of the visual effects: sometimes overdone, other times bordering on amateur. Don’t blame the artists, though; as Daniel Chin points out in this Ringer piece, Marvel […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Toxic Tiles
“How vinyl flooring made with Uyghur forced labor ends up at big box stores.
Posted inEditor's Pick
How the AI Industry Profits from Catastrophe
The demand for data labeling in the artificial intelligence industry — tagging videos, sorting photos, and transcribing audio in order to train AI — has created a massive need for cheap labor, leading data-labeling platforms such as Appen to hire low-pay workers in countries like Venezuela, the Philippines, and Kenya to do these tasks. In […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control: Inside Shein’s Sudden Rise
“The Chinese company has become a fast-fashion juggernaut by appealing to budget-conscious Gen Zers. But its ultralow prices are hiding unacceptable costs.”
Posted inCulture, Nonfiction, Reading List, Story
What We Wear: A Reading List on Fashion and Our Complex Relationship to Clothes
Getting dressed isn’t a low-stakes activity.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Incalculable Cost of Cheap Chicken—and the Hidden Industry That Shoulders It
“The exact number of COVID-19 deaths connected to poultry plants may never be known, but one thing is clear: the Latinx population in North Carolina has been hit hard by the pandemic.”