Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine
The architecture of the modern web poses grave threats to humanity.
Great articles, every Saturday.
The architecture of the modern web poses grave threats to humanity.
Adrienne LaFrance The Atlantic Dec 2020 20min Permalink
How John, a father of 14, lost Christmas.
George Saunders New Yorker Dec 2003 10min Permalink
The boutique fitness phenomenon sold exclusivity with a smile, until a toxic atmosphere and a push for growth brought the whole thing down.
Alex Abad-Santos Vox Dec 2020 30min Permalink
A hallucinatory, grotesque family Christmas.
Rebecca Curtis The New Yorker Dec 2013 35min Permalink
A nephew investigates his uncle’s suicide
Brad Rassler Outside Dec 2020 Permalink
A U.S.-backed militia that kills children may be America’s exit strategy from its longest war.
Andrew Quilty The Intercept Dec 2020 40min Permalink
When it comes to data from India’s 500 million daily internet users, everything is for sale.
Snigdha Poonam, Samarth Bansal Rest of World Dec 2020 Permalink
Ed Yong spent 2020 covering the pandemic for The Atlantic. His latest feature is "How Science Beat the Virus."
“I am trying to give readers a platform that they can stand on to observe this raging torrent that is the pandemic, this cascade of information that is threatening to sweep us all away. I’m trying to give people a rock on which they can stand so that they can observe what is happening without themselves being submerged by it. But I am trying to construct that platform while also being submerged in it.”
Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode.
Dec 2020 Permalink
Each time the work of the British-Mexican artist and writer is reborn, it seems more prescient.
Merve Emre New Yorker Dec 2020 20min Permalink
They were pillars of their communities and families, and they are not replaceable. To understand why COVID-19 killed so many young Black men, you need to know the legend of John Henry.
Akilah Johnson, Nina Martin ProPublica Dec 2020 30min Permalink
The post–civil war boom in shark fishing that saved Congolese fishermen and their families is now drying up.
Christopher Clark Hakai Dec 2020 15min Permalink
One year after a 14-year-old basketball player was killed by a stray bullet on a playground court in Queens, his friends and family still don’t have answers—only enduring anguish and a familiar feeling of grief.
Kevin Armstrong Sports Illustrated Dec 2020 25min Permalink
The circus is gone. The presidency is ending. The mystery endures.
Olivia Nuzzi New York Dec 2020 20min Permalink
A white woman calls the police on her Black neighbors. Six months later, they still share a property line.
Allison P. Davis New York Dec 2020 35min Permalink
While Covid-19 deaths in the United States skyrocket, Germans have managed to largely contain the damage. What do we need to learn?
Annalisa Quinn Boston Globe Magazine Nov 2020 20min Permalink
Genetic analysis of human remains found in the Himalayas has raised baffling questions about who these people were and why they were there.
Douglas Preston New Yorker Dec 2020 25min Permalink
Why did Christie Smythe upend her life and stability for Martin Shkreli, one of the least-liked men in the world?
Stephanie Clifford Elle Dec 2020 20min Permalink
Many of the 230,000 women and girls in U.S. jails and prisons were abuse survivors before they entered the system. And at least 30 percent of those serving time on murder or manslaughter charges were protecting themselves or a loved one from physical or sexual violence.
Justine van der Leun The New Republic Dec 2020 35min Permalink
Climate change is propelling enormous human migrations as it transforms global agriculture and remakes the world order — and no country stands to gain more than Russia.
Abrahm Lustgarten ProPublica Dec 2020 Permalink
A troubled man's complex acts of mercy,
David Byron Queen New World Writing Dec 2020 10min Permalink
How toxic fumes seep into the air you breathe on planes.
Kiera Feldman Los Angeles Times Dec 2020 25min Permalink
A husband’s stroke, the Australian bushfires, and a trip to the Great Barrier Reef.
Robert Moor Outside Dec 2020 25min Permalink
Nilay Patel is editor-in-chief of The Verge and hosts the podcast Decoder.
“The instant ability—unmanaged ability—for people to say horrible things to each other because of phones is tearing our culture apart. It just is. And so sometimes, I’m like, Man, I wish our headline had been: ‘iPhone Released. It’s A Mistake.’ … But I think there’s a really important flipside to that … a bunch of teenagers are able to create culture at a scale that has never been possible before. Also, a bunch of marginalized communities are able to speak with coordinated voices and make change very rapidly. And that balance—I don’t think we’ve quite understood.”
Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode.
Dec 2020 Permalink
Perpetual outsiders, Mormons spent 200 years assimilating to a certain national ideal—only to find their country in an identity crisis. What will the third century of the faith look like?
McKay Coppins The Atlantic Dec 2020 35min Permalink
For years, JaMarcus Crews tried to get a new kidney, but corporate healthcare stood in the way. He needed dialysis to stay alive. He couldn’t miss a session, not even during a pandemic.