How Cities Make Money by Fining the Poor
In many parts of America, like Corinth, Miss., judges are locking up defendants who can’t pay—sometimes for months at a time.
Solitude and Leadership
A speech on the value of being alone with your thoughts, delivered to the plebe class at West Point.
Lizzie Johnson covers wildfires for the San Francisco Chronicle.
“It’s kind of like when you’re a beginning journalist and you have to write an obituary—calling the family of the person who died seems like this insurmountable, very invasive task and you really don’t want to do it. That’s kind of how I felt about interviewing fire victims at first. I felt like I was somehow intruding on their grief and their pain. But somewhere along the way I realized there’s healing power in talking about what you’ve been through. Saying it out loud and being able to claim ownership to it. I found that time after time these people are very grateful because they need to talk. They have something to say in the aftermath of this big, massive thing that just came and wiped out everything they knew. They really do just need someone to listen to them. I have never had someone tell me, ‘Go away, we don’t want to talk to you.’ And I’m completely bowled over by that every single time.”
Thanks to MailChimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
The Egg Thief
For decades, Jeffrey Lendrum went to extreme lengths to snatch falcon eggs from their nests and sell them to the highest bidder. Then he got caught.
"Leave No Soldier Behind"
The unsolved mystery of the soldier who died in the watchtower.
What Driving Can Teach Us About Living
How we respond to the rules of the road offers insight into being human.
How to Hand out Free Money
Alaska can show us the way.
The Champion Barack Obama
How Black America talks to the White House.
When You Give a Teacher a Gun
“It is a John Wick training montage, but with teachers wearing T-shirts with elementary-school mascots or “This is what an AWESOME SCIENCE TEACHER looks like” emblazoned across the front.”
The Shame of College Sports
The case for paying college athletes.
Gluten Free Antarctica
“Antarctica, the only continent without a Michelin star, has never been a destination for fine dining.”
The Mysterious Life (and Death) of Africa’s Oldest Trees
On the plight of the baobab tree.
The French Burglar Who Pulled Off His Generation’s Biggest Art Heist
A profile of the climber and thief Vjeran Tomic, dubbed Spider-Man by the French press, who describes robbery as an act of imagination.
How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation
“We are beginning to understand what ails us, and it’s not something an oxygen facial or a treadmill desk can fix.”
Losing It in the Anti-Dieting Age
The agonies of being overweight—or running a diet company—in a culture that likes to pretend it only cares about health, not size.
The Infiltrator
How an undercover oil industry mercenary tricked pipeline opponents into believing he was one of them.
The Jonestown We Don’t Know
In the wings of this great drama were the unseen. Hidden in the rainforest where the violence was staged, in the eerie aftermath of the tragedy, were three people whose stories cue political contexts in both the US and Guyana crucial to understanding how and why Jonestown may have happened.
The Star Treatment
As R. Kelly’s career flourished, an industry overlooked allegations of abusive behavior toward young women.
Lost in the Valley of Death
Justin Alexander went searching for higher meaning. No one expected the quest to end in a search for his body.
The End of Forever
What happens when an adoption fails?
Fiction Pick of the Week: "Some Ongoing Etc."
Reprint: the aftermath of a mental breakdown.
Footsteps in a Marked House: The Complex Role of Women in Pakistan’s Police Force
Women’s recruitment into elite commandos, formed in response to post-9/11 terrorism, was not driven by a desire for diversity in the workplace, but by the need to conduct raids and arrest militants without alienating local communities.
The Real Roots of American Rage
The untold story of how anger became the dominant emotion in our politics and personal lives—and what we can do about it.
The Priest of Abu Ghraib
Inside Iraq’s most notorious prison, an Army interrogator named Joshua Casteel came fact to face with a truth about the war—and himself.
In the Jungle
How legends of the American music industry made millions off the work of Solomon Linda, a Zulu tribesman who wrote “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and died a pauper.
