COVID-19 stories:
The best- and worst-case scenarios for how this pandemic ends, from one of the country’s top science reporters. (The Atlantic, ~25 min.)
What happens when your spouse tests positive for coronavirus? This first-person account, from a New York Times editor, took my breath away. (New York Times, ~14 min.)
A pandemic means illness, and it also means fear; history shows us how we’ll get through it. (The Walrus, ~21 min.)
His partner was the first person in Indiana to die from COVID-19. His story damn near broke me. (Washington Post, ~9 min.)
How the frustratingly elusive N95 mask evolved from mere smell-stopper to pandemic life-saver. (Fast Company, ~8 min.)
Be kind to your local grocery store workers. They’re having a hell of a time right now. (HuffPost, ~7 min.)
When a Southern writer ventured to Spain for an extended stay, she had no idea her new neighbors would become her lifeline. Absolutely lovely. (Bitter Southerner, ~14 min.)
This essay about grief in the time of coronavirus settled me in a way I hadn’t anticipated. Just read it. (Harvard Business Review, ~7 min.)
(Illustration by Cornelia Li)
The best of the rest:
In 1978, an eighth-grader walked into class and shot and killed his teacher. Four decades later, the killer’s classmates are still coming to terms with what they witnessed as kids. (Texas Monthly, ~45 min.)
University of Oregon women’s basketball phenom Sabrina Ionescu won’t get to play for the NCAA title, but her legend has only just begun. (ESPN, ~23 min.)
Meet Rep. Katie Porter, the freshman congresswoman whose brutal take-down of the CDC chief went viral earlier this month. She was made for this moment. (California Sunday, ~19 min.)
Two photographers co-founded a photo agency in Iraq to show the world that there was more to the country than war. Then one of them was kidnapped by ISIS. (Guernica Magazine, ~26 min.)
After her daughter died from OxyContin, Marianne Skolek Perez went after Purdue Pharma with the fury of 1,000 moms — and she’s not done yet. (Wired, ~16 min.)
A funny and gripping second-by-second account of the skydive that showed one woman how fear was holding her back. (Reader’s Digest Canada, ~15 min.)
Activist Jane de Oliveira devoted her life to protesting the takeover of the Amazon rain forest by corporate interests — but in the end, it wasn’t enough. (Vanity Fair, ~18 min.)
Why the “new” iteration of The Biggest Loser is as painful and horrific as the old. I’ve been waiting for someone to write this. (Outside, ~18 min.)
This is what the world’s second-largest recorded earthquake (9.2, Alaska, 1964) felt like, according to the people who were there. And don’t miss this piece’s glorious ending. (Literary Hub, ~10 min.)
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