TheNewsGal, Edition No. 82
What a week! These are the standouts.
All the things
The Devil Wears Prada Oral History: The cast reunites for a 15-year anniversary chat. Not all oral histories are created equal; this one’s a keeper. (Joey Nolfi, Entertainment Weekly, ~19 min.)
The Man Who Controls the Senate. Will Joe Manchin’s search for common ground wreck the Democrats’ agenda? Quite the sharp profile of someone I love to hate. (Evan Osnos, New Yorker, ~39 min.)
I Just Wanna Say My Sisters’ Names. These Players’ Tribune essays, my god. (Reggie Bullock, Players’ Tribune, ~10 min.)
The Water in May. In a letter to his young son, actor Ken Leung tells the story of his brother, who tragically drowned in Thailand, and the incredible journey it took to bring him home. What a wild, heart-wrenching story. (Ken Leung, GQ, ~46 min.)
The Rise and Fall of an American Tech Giant. Kodak changed the way Americans saw themselves and their country. But it struggled to reinvent itself for the digital age. Excellent. (Kaitlyn Tiffany, The Atlantic, ~33 min.)
What covering hundreds of homicides taught me. A departing reporter says goodbye to the toughest of beats. (Nicole Santa Cruz, Los Angeles Times, ~9 min.)
“I Probably Modeled Him on Something I’d Heard on The Wire.” The audiobook industry is collectively squirming through the cultural debate on representation and casting. I’m a huge audiobook listener, and I’d been wondering about this very thing. (Laura Miller, Slate, ~12 min.)
My Father Vanished When I Was 7. The Mystery Made Me Who I Am. Can’t believe how good this is. (Nicholas Casey, New York Times Magazine, ~39 min.)
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were executed for spying in 1953. Can their sons reveal the truth and clear their mother’s name? Fascinating, and not just for history geeks. (Hadley Freeman, The Guardian, ~21 min.)
Clash of the Islanders. There are 262 homes on the picturesque Toronto Islands, and the battle to get one is epic. Inside the fight over a prime property that’s ripping a tight-knit community in two. You’ve gotta read it to believe it. (Katherine Laidlaw, Toronto Life, ~24 min.)
The Missing Note. For Anand Menon, a professor at King’s College London, an early bout of Covid turned out to be the least of the hardships he suffered during the most difficult year of his life. This is the piece that stayed with me this week. (Anand Menon, Tortoise, ~20 min.)
He Thought He Could Outfox the Gig Economy. He Was Wrong. Jeffrey Fang was a ride-hailing legend, a top earner with relentless hustle. Then his minivan was carjacked — with his kids in the back seat. A tour de force. (Lauren Smiley, Wired, -36 min.)
If you read one thing this week
Business in the Front, Rebellion in the Back. My childhood rat tail was a lesson on the borders of class and gender. Fantastic. (Alex Manley, Catapult, ~11 min.)