Covid-19
Americans are six months into the pandemic, and “every decision is a risk. Every risk is a decision.” (FiveThirtyEight, ~6 min.)
More color-coded charts, please, for all the risky pandemic things. (Wired, ~10 min.)
All our hopes and dreams hinge on a vaccine — but this is what the vaccine reality looks like. (The Atlantic, ~14 min.)
A day in the life of a scientist in the coronavirus vaccine race. (No pressure.) (Elemental, ~8 min.)
This coronavirus story out of Texas, about the “last responders” who transport bodies of the dead, reminds me of the stories out of Italy in March. (Texas Tribune, ~10 min.)
The school reopening debate is still going strong. Here’s one smart teacher’s perspective. (New York Times Opinion, ~4 min.)
A brother and his two younger sisters were the center of their immigrant parents’ world. Then their parents died from coronavirus. (Washington Post, ~8 min.)
Race, policing & Black Lives Matter protests
“I know how to cover a Portland protest. So why am I shaking?” (Courthouse News, ~7 min.)
This is the take on the Portland protests that I’ve been waiting for. Sit with this for a few minutes. (Perspectives, ~12 min.)
How Ben & Jerry’s, one of the few companies to get Black Lives Matter solidarity right, perfected the art of corporate activism. (Bloomberg Businessweek, ~15 min.)
Harvard history professor Jill Lepore explains how the police came to be the police. (Spoiler alert: the answer is basically slavery.) (New Yorker, ~23 min.)
In Alabama, an old-school police officer attempts to handle a tough mental health call by putting his recent deescalation training into practice. It’s not easy. (Washington Post, ~20 min.)
In 1919, the only Mexican American lawmaker in Texas went after the Texas Rangers for their “reign of terror” against Mexicans and Mexican Americans. Then they went after him. (Mother Jones, ~12 min.)
How the 1983 lynching of 23-year-old Timothy Goggins was finally solved. (GQ, ~17 min.)
The best of the rest
(Reef Chang, New York Times)
Meet the Instagram-famous octogenarians who have taken to modeling the clothes left behind at their Taiwan laundromat. (New York Times, ~5 min.)
Do kids really need braces? Turns out this question is quite the controversy in dental and orthodontic circles. (Undark Magazine, ~14 min.)
Humans all over the world are migrating as climate change hampers their ability to live. Now, our collective future depends on the government actions of the countries in North America and Europe where most of the migrants are headed. Incredible reporting and storytelling. (ProPublica and New York Times, ~44 min.)
The five adult Liles siblings agreed to meet their mother’s killer. But restorative justice didn’t turn out quite the way they’d hoped. (Marshall Project, ~30 min.)
On the floor of Congress, AOC nailed her rebuttal to Rep. Ted Yoho and the patriarchy. Rebecca Traister breaks it down for us as only she can. (The Cut, ~8 min.)
(Slate)
The world’s “most technologically sophisticated genocide” is happening in China right now. (Foreign Policy, ~6 min.)
Among the thousands of Syrian refugees living in Europe, there are hundreds of former members of Bashar al-Assad’s torturous regime hiding in plain sight. Bringing the alleged war criminals to justice is another story. (Harper’s Magazine, ~13 min.)
Does it matter whether it’s called bibimbap or a Korean rice bowl? Why recipe names matter. (Vice, ~11 min.)
Twenty-five years after Clueless hit theaters, Alicia Silverstone reflects on playing the hair-flipping, heart-warming, ever-chic Cher Horowitz. (Vogue, ~14 min.)
If you read one thing this week
The incredible story of a rare, child-sized cello, missing for 40 years, is pure delight from start to finish. (Los Angeles Times, ~19 min.)
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Thanks for reading.
Kirsten