“Bryan Stevenson on Charleston and Our Real Problem with Race,” The Marshall Project
I’ve been a fan of Bryan Stevenson, the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, ever since seeing a TED Talk he did a few years ago. In this interview, he traces the narrative of white supremacy and its relationship to America’s race issues, including police violence, mass incarceration, Charleston and the Confederate flag debate, by showing how that narrative has never ended. — Jonathan Stegall, user experience engineer
“Prison Born,” The Atlantic
What happens when a pregnant woman is sent to prison? The answer varies depending on where she lives. This piece by Sarah Yager dives into the issue and what some states are doing to help incarcerated young mothers spend more time with their kids. Bonus: Read this Marshall Project piece from April looking at Minnesota’s strict approach to expectant mothers in prison. — Briana Bierschbach, state politics reporter
“Saving Horatio Alger,” Brookings Institute
It’s rooted deep in the American self-myth that it is possible to be born poor and end up rich through hard work and talent. And it used to be more true than false. Now it’s more false than true. In this report, Richard V. Reeves (perhaps not the Richard Reeves you’re thinking of), a Brit based at Brookings, provides an overview of the history of social mobility and the current state. You won’t be too surprised that your chances of moving from bottom economic quintile to the higher ones improve tremendously based on three factors: if you are white, if you are raised by two parents, if you go to college. —Eric Black, national politics writer
“What is code?” Bloomberg Business
Today, the idea of coding is imbued with a certain mystique — if they updated “The Graduate,” “Learn to code” would almost certainly replace “Plastics” as the advice given to young Dustin Hoffman. Every business, every organization needs people who can write computer code (whether they are in house or hired from the outside) yet very few people know what it is that coders actually do. In this engaging and at times hilarious essay, Paul Ford pulls back the curtain on what it means to work in code. The 38,000 words just sail by (really). —Tom Nehil, news editor
“Tiny house, big benefits,” The Washington Post Magazine
Think you could live in a 140 sq ft. house? You wouldn’t be the first. In fact, as Nina Patel writes, you might be part of a movement. —Joel Kramer, CEO/editor
“Why Do So Few Blacks Study the Civil War?” The Atlantic
This is an older — but timely — piece from Ta-Nehisi Coates. And typical of Coates, it deftly weaves in history, memoir, and contemporary analysis to answer the article’s titular question. Great read for those looking to go past the Confederate flag alone and dig deeper into the Civil War’s lingering effects on black and Southern America. –Sam Brodey, Washington correspondent
“The Making of ‘Who Shot Mr. Burns?’” the A.V. Club
There’s probably no reason for this piece to exist, but it’s a fascinating and detail-rich look at one of the great Simpson’s capers from the show’s heyday. As a kid, I remember the cliffhanger from part one ruined my summer. —Andy Mannix, data reporter
“Is Paying Your Rent About to Become Even More of a Nightmare?” Slate
Two distressing housing stories came out of a recent release of a report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard. The first, from Governing Magazine, highlights a finding that homeownership has fallen to its lowest level in at least two decades. The second, in Slate, notes another finding from the study — that the number of “cost-burdened” renters has hit a new high. —Peter Callaghan, local government reporter
“Who Stole the Ruby Slippers,” Minnesota Monthly
A few weeks ago, when it was announced that a dive team in Itasca County was searching the old Tioga Mine pit for a pair of the ruby slippers worn in the “Wizard of Oz” — the shoes were purloined from a Grand Rapids museum 10 years ago — I had to go back and reread this piece, a wildly entertaining narrative by local writer Tim Gihring. —Andrew Putz, executive editor
