Covid-19
(New York Times Magazine)
America at Hunger’s Edge, a photo-driven piece months in the making, shows the daily reality of the 1 in 8 families across the country who struggle to get enough to eat. This story damn near broke me. (New York Times Magazine, ~14 min.)
Ed Yong, coronavirus reporter extraordinaire, don’t ever leave us. A sobering look at the state of the pandemic, and where we go from here. (The Atlantic, ~23 min.)
It’s OK to mourn the summer we never had. (NBC News, ~5 min.)
Immigrant struggles in America forged a bond that became even tighter after my mother’s ALS diagnosis. Then, as Covid-19 threatened, Chinese nationalists began calling us traitors to our country. (New Yorker, ~40 min.)
A pandemic, a motel without power, and a potentially terrifying glimpse of Orlando’s future. If you haven’t read this yet, get moving. (Washington Post, ~14 min.)
Temperature checks are inaccurate and not everyone with Covid has a fever. So, why are we still doing them? (USA Today, ~3 min.)
A 26-year-old film editor’s descent into coronavirus vaccine conspiracy theories. Just … wow. (Washington Post, ~14 min.)
The pandemic is the perfect time for a parents revolution. (Slate, ~11 min.)
At 35, Carrie was finally feeling secure in her adult life. The coronavirus completely derailed it. My favorite in a series of six outstanding stories about people across the U.S. from different age groups as they live through “The Lost Year.” (BuzzFeed News, ~16 min.)
Race, policing & Black Lives Matter
(Stanley Wolfson, New York World-Telegram & Sun, Library of Congress)
The day Malcolm X was killed. (New Yorker, ~20 min.)
“They couldn’t arrest us all”: Freedom Singer Rutha Mae Harris on protest, prison, and civil rights. (The Guardian, ~10 min.)
Ahmaud Arbery’s killing was met with silence. His high school football coach vowed to find justice. (Washington Post, ~14 min.)
This is what it’s really like to live in Portland during the protests. Tell your out-of-state friends and family. (Culture Study, ~17 min.)
Inside America’s brotherhood of police officers. (Vanity Fair, ~17 min.)
Meet Linda Martell, Black country music’s lost pioneer. (Rolling Stone, ~20 min.)
I’ll read anything by Asian American writer Jay Caspian King. Here, he reflects on power, protest, and politics in American sports — and gets a little personal in the process. (New York Review of Books, ~23 min.)
Swept up in the federal response to Portland protests: “I didn’t know
if I was going to be seen again.” Incredible reporting about a surreal story that you’ve gotta read to believe. (Washington Post, ~18 min.)
The best of the rest
(Christopher Thomond, The Guardian)
The U.K. butcher shop that lasted 300 years (give or take). (The Guardian, ~29 min.)
On Witness and Respair: A personal tragedy followed by pandemic. A gorgeous essay from best-selling author Jesmyn Ward that will sit with you for a good long while. (Vanity Fair, ~10 min.)
They know how to prevent megafires. Why won’t anybody listen? This has infuriated me since I fought wildfires in college, and nothing’s changed in the two decades since then. Nothing. (ProPublica, ~15 min.)
“You are not alone”: Past Northern California wildfire survivors counsel new members of a tragic club. (San Francisco Chronicle, ~6 min.)
Can the best conman of his generation stay one step ahead of the unofficial global task force obsessed with taking him down? This one’s a doozy. (Truly Adventurous, ~33 min.)
Behind the scenes as the vote-by-mail industry races against the clock in the countdown to Election Day. Reads like a thriller, I promise. (California Sunday, ~18 min.)
This essay is the one I wish I’d written about how the past four years have changed me. (Discourse Blog, ~11 min.)
The convenient truth of rotisserie chicken. (Taste, ~15 min.)
Best-selling author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie lost her beloved dad in June. These are a daughter’s notes on grief. (New Yorker, ~41 min.)
You Don’t Know Her: Thirty years into an epic career, Mariah Carey is still trying to explain herself. (Vulture, ~32 min.)
If you read one thing this week
(Statesman Journal)
In Oregon, a father’s heartbreaking attempt to save his family from a raging fire. There are no words. (Statesman Journal, ~5 min.)
If you know someone who’d like this, please forward it their way, and encourage them to subscribe. For additional stories beyond the newsletter, follow TheNewsGal on Twitter and Facebook.
Thanks for reading.
Kirsten