“I've Seen Death in This City, but Nothing as Sad as This”
How a ferry disaster exposed the corruption devastating Iraq.
How a ferry disaster exposed the corruption devastating Iraq.
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad The Guardian Dec 2019 25min Permalink
Knowing she had the legal right to die helped Paralympic gold medalist Marieke Vervoort live her life.
Andrew Keh, Lynsey Addario New York Times Dec 2019 20min Permalink
Tonya Crowder still dreams that she and her fiance, Roosevelt Myles—who’s been in prison for decades fighting what he says is a wrongful conviction—will one day build a life together somewhere “nice, quiet, and simple.”
Mari Cohen Chicago Reader Nov 2019 25min Permalink
Half a century on from the summer of love, marijuana is big business and mindfulness a workplace routine. Nat Segnit asks how the movement found itself at the heart of capitalism
Nat Segnit 1843 Dec 2019 15min Permalink
A neighbor's strange procedure; a couple's disintegrating marriage.
Nick Bertelson Pithead Chapel Dec 2019 15min Permalink
How Evangelicals have claimed Trump as one of their own.
Alex Morris Rolling Stone Dec 2019 25min Permalink
It was one of the most arresting viral photos of the year: a horde of climbers clogged atop Mount Everest. But it only begins to capture the deadly realities of what transpired that day at 29,000 feet.
Joshua Hammer GQ Dec 2019 25min Permalink
As psychiatrists and philosophers begin to define a pervasive mental health crisis triggered by climate change, they ask who is really sick: the individual or society?
Ash Sanders The Believer Dec 2019 30min Permalink
Parul Sehgal is a book critic for The New York Times.
“I write about books, I review books, but in a sense, to do my job at a newspaper also puts that pressure on a piece to say: why should you read or care about this? You’re trying to tweeze out what is newsworthy, what is interesting, what is vital about this book….My job is I think to be honest with the reader and to keep surfacing new ways for me and for other people to think about books. New vocabularies of pleasure and disgust.”
Thanks to Mailchimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
Dec 2019 Permalink
Paul Skalnik has a decades-long criminal record and may be one of the most prolific jailhouse informants in U.S. history. The state of Florida is planning to execute a man based largely on his word.
Pamela Colloff ProPublica Dec 2019 55min Permalink
The origins of a misplaced panic.
L.V. Anderson Slate Dec 2019 20min Permalink
How a bunch of Canadian hipsters wound up smuggling cocaine (and getting caught).
Kate Knibbs The Ringer Dec 2019 25min Permalink
How Walter Liew stole titanium white from DuPont on behalf of the Chinese government.
Del Quentin Wilber Bloomberg Business Feb 2016 15min Permalink
To read the transcript of Erin Hunter’s trial, which runs all of 81 pages and can be digested in half an hour, is to encounter a disregard for human dignity instrumental in producing the most sprawling system of incarceration in the world.
Nick Chrastil The Atavist Magazine Dec 2019 30min Permalink
On Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist movement.
Dexter Filkins New Yorker Dec 2019 40min Permalink
In 1964, with “Seven Up!” Michael Apted stumbled into making what has become the most profound documentary series in the history of cinema. Fifty-five years later, the project is reaching its conclusion.
Gideon Lewis-Kraus New York Times Magazine Dec 2019 35min Permalink
Match Group, which owns most major online dating services, screens for sexual predators on Match—but not on Tinder, OkCupid or Plenty of Fish. A spokesperson said, “There are definitely registered sex offenders on our free products.”
Hillary Flynn, Keith Cousins, Elizabeth Naismith Picciani Buzzfeed, ProPublica Dec 2019 30min Permalink
On the bohemian poet’s hidden career as a prolific copywriter.
Dale Hrabi The Walrus Nov 2019 25min Permalink
“What am I going to do? Because this isn’t fair. I deserve to have a life, to be functional. Well, I guess I’m going to stick myself with bees.”
Katy Vine Texas Monthly Nov 2019 25min Permalink
Andy Burcham is navigating his first season as the on-air replacement for his best friend, a beloved college football announcer named Rod Bramblett who was killed with his wife in a car crash. But a bigger change is at home, where the Burchams are raising the Brambletts’ son.
Sam Borden ESPN Nov 2019 25min Permalink
A hockey father's escalating faultsthe.
Bradley Babendir The Sun Magazine Nov 2019 10min Permalink
In 1997, the former Soviet leader needed money, and Pizza Hut needed a spokesman. Greatness ensued.
Paul Musgrave Foreign Policy Nov 2019 15min Permalink
South of San Francisco, in a fertile corner of California that feeds much of the country, working families are sleeping in shelters and parking lots.
Brian Goldstone California Sunday Nov 2019 20min Permalink
The first magazine profile of the actor in more than 20 years.
Jamie Lauren Keiles New York Times Magazine Nov 2019 30min Permalink
James Verini is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine and National Geographic. His new book is They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate.
“War is mostly down time. War is mostly waiting around for something to happen.”
Thanks to Mailchimp, Pitt Writers, and "Couples Therapy" for sponsoring this week's episode.
Nov 2019 Permalink