“God Made Me Black on Purpose,” Politico Magazine
In the age of President Donald Trump, a man who is often accused of being a racist, the hardest thing for a politician right now is probably to be both a person of color and a Republican. In this story, Tim Alberta tells the story of Tim Scott, the black Republican U.S. senator from South Carolina, whose own community accuses him of being a sellout, even as he continues to speak out against the president’s racially insensitive comments. — Ibrahim Hirsi, workforce and immigration reporter
“How a Woman Lost Her Identity,” The New Yorker
Rachel Aviv shares the story of Hannah Upp, a Harlem middle-school teacher, who went missing for two weeks. When two deckhands from a Staten Island ferry pulled what they believed to be a dead body from the water, Upp began gasping for air and crying. Not realizing three weeks had passed, and following numerous brain-imaging tests, she was given a diagnosis of dissociative fugue, a rare condition in which people lose access to their autobiographical memory and personal identity. — Corey Anderson, web editor
“Fear and Loathing on the Iditarod Trail,” Outside
Between its remoteness, the cold, and the grueling nature of the race, the Iditarod, a dogsled race of more than 1,000 miles, is no easy task. But these days, some say a musher is more likely to be a casualty of the drugs, violence and alcohol abuse that permeates rural Alaska than the cold. — Greta Kaul, data reporter
“Who Was Mary Magdalene?” Smithsonian Magazine
This is a piece from 2006, but it came across my timeline, probably after people watched NBC’s live version “Jesus Christ Superstar” on Easter (which I think was wonderfully done). This piece traces what is relatively known about the woman known as Mary Magdalene, why there’s potential for a lot of confusion about her, and how the confusing pieces were intentionally weaved together to create the Mary Magdalene that many people think of, even though there’s no evidence such a person existed. — Jonathan Stegall, user experience engineer
