Longform.org Longform iPad App Twitter: @longform Contact: editors@longform.orgTumblr (3.0; @longformblog)http://blog.longform.org/<iframe class="tumblr_audio_player tumblr_audio_player_35212398142" src="http://blog.longform.org/post/35212398142/audio_player_iframe/longformblog/tumblr_md4opuwPDK1rbu1zu?audio_file=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tumblr.com%2Faudio_file%2Flongformblog%2F35212398142%2Ftumblr_md4opuwPDK1rbu1zu" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" scrolling="no" width="500" height="169"></iframe><br/><br/><p><a class="tumblr_blog" href="http://longformpodcast.tumblr.com/post/35212303415/weiner">longformpodcast</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p><strong>Episode 15: Jonah Weiner</strong></p> <p>Jonah Weiner, contributing editor at <em>Rolling Stone</em>, pop critic at <em>Slate</em>, and contributor to <em>The New York Times Magazine</em> and <em>The New Yorker</em>, interviewed by Aaron Lammer.</p> <blockquote> <p class="p1">“The thing that I’ve found useful is really actually to delete everything that I’ve written and go at it fresh, and re-envision it again: this is going to be my new lede now. That’s really the best way to do it, because if there are these vestigial sentences, and vestigial sequences or paragraphs that are in the draft, for me, that’s just going to snap me back to where my head was at, in an unproductive way… Often, I’ll find that that is just this great cure-all. Just delete it all, go for a walk or whatever, and then sit down and start writing an entirely different feature about the exact same subject.”</p> </blockquote> <p><em>Thanks to <strong><a href="http://tinyletter.com/">TinyLetter</a></strong> for sponsoring this week’s episode!</em></p> <hr><p>Show notes and links:</p> <ol><li><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/10/22/121022fa_fact_weiner?currentPage=all&pink=dF7EVR&mobify=0">“Prying Eyes”</a> (New Yorker • Oct 2012)</li> <li><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2010/08/kanye_west_has_a_goblet.html">“Kanye West Has a Goblet”</a> (Slate • Aug 2010)</li> <li><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/the-brilliance-of-dwarf-fortress.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">“The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress”</a> (New York Times Magazine • Dec 2008)</li> <li><a href="http://www.jonahweiner.com/Vanessa_Grigoriadis_Q%26A_TWA.html">Interview: Vanessa Grigoriadis</a> (The Writearound • Sep 2011)</li> <li><a href="http://www.jonahweiner.com/">jonahweiner.com</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.jonahweiner.com/The_Writearound.html">The Writearound</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/jonahweiner">@jonahweiner</a></li> <li><a href="http://longform.org/author/jonah-weiner-2/">Weiner on Longform</a></li> </ol></blockquote>http://blog.longform.org/post/35212398142http://blog.longform.org/post/35212398142Wed, 07 Nov 2012 13:52:05 -0500<p><em>Further Reading is a new blog feature in which we take a deeper look at topics from stories featured on Longform. It is produced along with<a href="http://writing.pitt.edu/"> Pitt Writers.</a></em></p> <p align="center"><img height="333px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-XBsCWkYKLmSv8p_IRlQ0xggxqGir7z3OGkz7YcZssBQjv-rFRA-uLsChOuBNHKSoIsin4ELMyripJRf_20XpShh0wRtQdtthupYsq2epvxLZ8R1uO25" width="450px;"/><span><br/>The early days of the Bronx Zoo.</span></p> <p>Last week, Longform reprinted <a href="http://longform.org/wild-things/">&#8220;Wild Things,”</a> David Samuels&#8217;s wide-reaching exploration of zoos’ troubling history through the lens of the Bronx Zoo, one of America’s largest and oldest metropolitan animal menageries. Samuels dissects the metaphors inherent in caging animals for the benefit of spectators:<strong id="internal-source-marker_0.15177992451936007"><br/></strong></p> <blockquote>The fantasy that today’s zoos engender is clearly more benign than that of the early-twentieth-century racists, and yet it is not entirely dissimilar. Employing the familiar techniques of Saturday-morning cartoons, zoos use anthropomorphic logic and illusion to maintain the link between a love of animals and the desire to escape the evils that men inflict on both animals and their fellow human beings. Zoos promise us a refuge from the horrors engraved in the hearts of men and born of the conditional nature of our existence—which are therefore permanent and ineradicable. Zoos are a distinguishing and representative feature of a world of cages and enclosures inhabited by men and animals alike.</blockquote> <p>Here’s further reading on the benefits and detriments of zoos, their possible future, and the conservationist movement’s dark history: <!-- more --><br/><span></span><br/><strong><a href="http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/5614/">Conservation and Eugenics</a></strong><br/><span>Charles Wohlforth • </span><span>Orion Magazine</span><span>  • Jul 2010</span><br/><span> </span><br/><span>Madison Grant was a pioneering conservationist, the founder of the Bronx Zoo—and an early champion of eugenics, the racist pseudo-science later celebrated by the likes of Adolf Hitler. Wohlforth’s article outlines how theories of conservation and eugenics collided in the early 1900s and demonstrates how Grant’s views were shared by many of his contemporaries, including Theodore Roosevelt.</span><br/><span> </span></p> <blockquote> <p><span>This goal of creating a more racist society informed much of the cultural work of the institutions led by Roosevelt and Pinchot’s peers—not only the world’s fairs but the American Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian, and others. Grant was an influential friend to the president and phrases and ideas from his writing crept into Roosevelt’s. Oddly, the improvement of the dominant race meshed with the New Nationalism’s utopia of a merit-based society. Without money or class to distinguish them, the sexual attraction between men and women would be guided only by natural selection.</span></p> </blockquote> <p align="center"><img height="240px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/yg389hP4BdfRVtKYbladBG6tT6lo3-ec0V4D4jDh14pIYN0-ySUiUVnBBsoVdx16MMsGSHd4aQfOKOLt96gKU-Rm8TI-Q-rbM2HSMBSVNUiomNbhBF4" width="450px;"/><br/>Ota Benga</p> <p><strong><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/nyregion/thecity/06zoo.html?pagewanted=all">A Scandal at the Zoo</a></strong><br/>Mitch Keller • New York Times • August 6, 2006<br/><strong><br/></strong>As Samuels writes, the theories of eugenics permitted the founder of the Bronx Zoo to view certain races as less human than others, a perspective demonstrated in the exhibition of Ota Benga, an African Pygmy caged in the Monkey House. Mitch Keller details this shameful moment in history and explores the lasting legacy in modern America of Ota Benga’s plight.<strong><br/></strong></p> <blockquote> <p><span>Ota Benga and an orangutan frolicked together, hugging and wrestling and playing tricks on each other. The crowd loved it. To enhance the jungle effect, a parrot was put in the cage and bones had been strewn around it. The crowd laughed as the pygmy sat staring at a pair of canvas shoes he had been given. “Few expressed audible objection to the sight of a human being in a cage with monkeys as companions,” </span><span>The New York Times</span><span> wrote the next day, “and there could be no doubt that to the majority the joint man-and-monkey exhibition was the most interesting sight in Bronx Park.”</span></p> </blockquote> <p><strong><a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0610/voices.html"><span><br/>Interview with George Schaller</span></a><br/></strong>John G. Mitchell • National Geographic • Oct 2006<br/><strong><br/></strong>Modern conservationism has moved far beyond the misguided conceptions of its forefathers, as Samuels reports after talking to George Schaller, “one of the world’s greatest living naturalists.” In this interview, Schaller further describes his work and why getting the public’s attention through zoos and reserves can help conservation efforts.<strong><br/></strong></p> <blockquote> <p><span>It&#8217;s easier to get money to study a panda than it is to study a leech. Now that doesn&#8217;t mean that the panda is necessarily more important biologically than the leech. It simply means that when you get the funds to study and protect a big, beautiful animal, you automatically protect the leeches and ants and all the other species in the area. We&#8217;re always talking about biodiversity, but that&#8217;s an abstract term. We&#8217;re not saving the panda because of biodiversity. We&#8217;re saving it because it arouses our emotion. And the emotional component is extraordinarily important to get the public behind conservation.</span></p> </blockquote> <p><strong><span> </span><br/><a href="http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/03/13/39842/5"><span>A Critical Look at the Future of Zoos—An Interview with David Hancocks</span></a><br/></strong>Jordan Carlton Schaul • National Geographic • March 13, 2012<br/><br/>How will zoos change as our understanding of animals and the institutions charged with displaying them evolve? An interview with a renowned zoo architect, director and historian, explores ways to improve zoos in the future.<strong><br/></strong></p> <blockquote> <p><span>If zoos started their planning and design processes by asking such questions how they could illustrate and celebrate bio-diversity, or help people understand the interconnectedness of all living things, or demonstrate interdependence, or help people understand how healthy eco-systems operate and are maintained, instead of just asking such simplistic questions as “where shall we build the new bear exhibit?” then we could begin to see some important developments in zoos.</span></p> </blockquote> <p><strong><a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/01/01/when_a_cage_means_freedom/"><span><br/>When a Cage Means Freedom</span></a><br/></strong>Kathy Rudy • Slate • Jan 1, 2012<br/><br/>Rudy compares two very different zoo stories that emerged last year and considers what they may teach us about zoos and their future.<strong><br/></strong></p> <blockquote> <p><span>The idea of complete autonomy and self-determination for animals underwrites a worldview where individual freedom trumps everything, even the goals and goods we all ought to be holding together and in common. In the strictest sense of the word, animal rights means that no animal should ever be used for human purposes whatsoever. No meat, no pets, no circuses, no sport, and certainly no zoos. Indeed, one of the major animal rights organizations that works to permanently close down all zoos, even the good ones, is named “Born Free,” a reference to the story of Elsa, a lion cub raised by humans Joy and George Adamson, and immortalized by the 1966 British film of the same name. Even though Elsa dies soon after her release, the moral of the story is that it’s better to be dead than in a cage.</span></p> </blockquote> <p><strong><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/life/human_guinea_pig/2010/06/poo_at_the_zoo.single.html"><span>Poo at the Zoo</span></a><br/></strong>Emily Yoffe • Slate • Jun 29, 2010<br/><strong><br/></strong>Ever wonder what it would be like to work as a zookeeper? Yoffe tests the water for you and finds that working with animals is a dirty business.<strong><br/></strong></p> <blockquote> <p><span>Imagine work that offers the chance to provide nurture and stimulation to needy, even helpless beings, while requiring heavy physical labor, and a high tolerance for the bodily excretions of others. Add little opportunity for advancement and a barely living wage. Given this job description we understand why day care centers and nursing homes have a hard time finding and retaining workers. Yet one of the paradoxes of zookeeping is that if the needy beings are wild animals that can bite, gore, or dismember you, then management has the luxury of dozens, even hundreds of applicants for each spot.</span></p> </blockquote> <p><em>—Laura Clark</em></p>http://blog.longform.org/post/35212145970http://blog.longform.org/post/35212145970Wed, 07 Nov 2012 13:47:01 -0500<a href="http://longform.org/wild-things/">"Wild Things" by David Samuels, now available in full on Longform</a>: <p>Big thanks to David Samuels, the latest guest on <a href="http://longformpodcast.tumblr.com/post/34710075661/samuels">our podcast</a> and the latest author to let us reprint a classic piece that was not previously online. <a href="http://longform.org/wild-things/">“Wild Things,”</a> a look at the Bronx Zoo that was years in the making, was published this summer in <em>Harper’s</em> and quickly became one of those rare paywalled stories that breaks out on Twitter despite the fact that non-subscribers can’t read it. Enjoy.</p>http://blog.longform.org/post/34711432070http://blog.longform.org/post/34711432070Wed, 31 Oct 2012 14:28:48 -0400<p><p class="p1"><em>Further Reading is a new blog feature in which we take a deeper look at topics from stories featured on Longform. It is produced along with </em><a href="http://writing.pitt.edu/"><span class="s1"><em>Pitt Writers.</em></span></a></p> <p class="p2">Last week, Longform picked Vanessa Veselka’s “<a href="http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201211/truck-stop-killer-gq-november-2012?printable=true"><span class="s1">The Truck Stop Killer</span></a>” about her search for possible connections between her hitchhiking days and a murderer:</p> <blockquote> <p class="p2">If there was any way to connect my story to [Robert Ben] Rhoades, it would be through the body of the girl in the Dumpster. Records on her would provide a date and a place that could then be checked against Rhoades&#8217;s trucking logs. To at least one of my questions—was Rhoades my guy?—I&#8217;d have a clear answer, a simple yes or no.</p> </blockquote> <p class="p3">Here&#8217;s further reading on memory, Veselka, and Rhoades:  <!-- more --></p> <p align="center"><img height="281" src="http://scallywagandvagabond.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/ht_Robert_Ben_Rhoades_jt_120330_wg.jpg" width="500"/></p> <p class="p5"><span class="s2"><a href="http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/blog/article/the-mobile-torture-chamber-of-serial-killer-robert-ben-rhoades/index.html"><strong>The Mobile Torture Chamber of Serial Killer Robert Ben Rhoades</strong><br/></a></span>Tricia Romano • TruTV Crime Library • September 2012</p> <p class="p3">A more detailed look at the killer’s methods and eventual discovery—and two of his victims, Lisa Pennal and Shana Holts.</p> <blockquote> <p class="p4">As with Pennal, Rhoades waited for Holts to fall asleep in the truck. In the middle of the night, he made a sudden stop.</p> <p class="p4">When she tried to escape, Rhoades responded by hitting her in the face. He took her at gunpoint to the mangy mattress in the back of the camper and shackled her with a handcuff to a bar hanging above her head. </p> </blockquote> <p class="p5"><strong><span class="s2"><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/memory-retention-sleep/?utm_source=Contextly&amp;utm_medium=RelatedLinks&amp;utm_campaign=Previous">Sleeping Protects Memories from Corruption<br/></a></span></strong>Tina Hesman Saey • Wired • January 2011</p> <p class="p3">Veselka emphasizes how little sleep she got while hitchhiking and how that may have played into her fuzzy memories. “I could rest but not dream,&#8221; she writes. &#8220;I could tell you the last three songs played on the radio if you asked, but only if you asked. If you didn&#8217;t, I had no memory of them at all.” On the link between sleep and memory:</p> <blockquote>Replaying memories while people are awake leaves their memories subject to tinkering. But reactivating memories during sleep protects them from interference.</blockquote> <p class="p2"><a href="http://www.ericberne.com/games/games_people_play_wooden_leg.htm"><strong>Wooden Leg</strong><br/></a>Eric Berne • Games People Play • 2006</p> <p class="p3">The author mentions Rhoades’s favorite book, a classic psychology text <em>Games People Play</em>. Read in the context of serial killers, the games take on a chilling feel.</p> <blockquote> <p class="p4">The most dramatic form of &#8220;Wooden Leg&#8221; is &#8220;The Plea of Insanity.&#8221; This may be translated into transactional terms as follows: &#8220;What do you expect of someone as emotionally disturbed as I am-that I would refrain from killing people?&#8221; To which the jury is asked to reply: &#8220;Certainly not, we would hardly impose that restriction on you!&#8221;</p> </blockquote> <p class="p5"><span class="s2"><a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2009/apr/05/local/me-serialkillers5"><strong>FBI Makes a Connection Between Long-Haul Truckers, Serial Killings</strong><br/></a></span>Scott Glover • LA Times • April 2009</p> <p class="p3">In 2009, the FBI began a database called the Highway Serial Killings Initiative to help find and track serial killers on the road. On its development and use:</p> <blockquote> <p class="p8">For the most part, the FBI analysts assigned to the serial killer program have spent their time combing through crime data that is months or even years old for patterns that might link slayings to one another or to a suspect. But occasionally, they have spotted patterns as they were actually occurring. That was the case two years ago when authorities noticed that dead prostitutes who had been shot with a .22-caliber gun were being found along highways in Georgia and Tennessee.</p> </blockquote> <p class="p5"><span class="s2"><a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Ftheamericanreader.com%2Fa-conversation-with-vanessa-veselka%2F&amp;sa=D&amp;sntz=1&amp;usg=AFQjCNFaU2U0sztGAnfPoyTD1p4t_wXkfA"><strong>A Conversation with Vanessa Veselka</strong><br/></a></span>Uzoamaka Maduka • The American Reader • October 2012</p> <p class="p3">Writing, race, gender, and curiosity in an interview with Veselka.</p> <blockquote> <p class="p9">People asked me after reading the article, “Do you think it was Rhoades?” I have two answers to that. The technical answer is, probably not. I just don’t see enough evidence that it’s him or anybody else. But the true answer is, I’ve lost the sense that it matters. Whether it’s Rhoades or somebody else—that is totally irrelevant. That’s not a relevant answer&#8230;Who gives a shit about their identity? The truth is that they are common.</p> </blockquote> <p class="p5"><span class="s2"><strong><em>—<a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FRoJoOhNo&amp;sa=D&amp;sntz=1&amp;usg=AFQjCNFR4EZBmpVsHF4kVdq5vvb9C1THdQ">Robyn Jodlowski</a></em></strong></span></p></p>http://blog.longform.org/post/34708078183http://blog.longform.org/post/34708078183Wed, 31 Oct 2012 13:09:00 -0400<p><em>Further Reading is a new blog feature in which we take a deeper look at topics from stories featured on Longform. It is produced along with</em><a href="http://writing.pitt.edu/"><span class="s1"><em>Pitt Writers.</em></span></a></p> <p>Last week, Longform picked a <a href="http://www.booknoise.net/johnseabrook/stories/culture/giant/index.html">1994&#160;<em>Harper</em>’s piece by John Seabrook</a> about giant bluefin tuna fishermen who answer the lucrative demands of Japanese sushi markets rather than the conservationists’ concerns about overfishing. Following one giant tuna from a coastal Maine harpoon hunt to its butchering after auction in Japan, Seabrook explores the reasoning behind the dismissal of reports that the fish’s numbers are dangerously dwindling:</p> <blockquote> <div> <p>I ask Brooks and Steve why they want to catch tuna so much. Steve says, &#8220;I love these fish. But I love to catch them. God I love to catch them. And I know you need some kind of catch limits because I&#8217;d catch all of them if I could.&#8221; He thinks for a minute. &#8220;Most guys I know don&#8217;t do this for the money. They tell you they do it for the money, but it&#8217;s not true.&#8221;</p> <p>Brooks says, &#8220;The money is just a way of keeping score. It&#8217;s hard to explain what it is. It&#8217;s weird. A lot of things come together when you stick a fish.&#8221;</p> </div> </blockquote> <p>Much has happened in the world’s oceans, fishing ports and conservation movements in the 18 years since Seabrook’s article was published. Here’s further reading on the current status of bluefin tuna, the changing fishing industry, sushi’s role in overfishing and how to keep eating (certain) oceanic fare without feeling bad.</p> <p><!-- more --></p> <p><strong id="internal-source-marker_0.8189671358559281"><img alt="image" height="261px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/F1EOq0JettRtaXfdEA6LDO2lmmiaxQkQPl2AFs6fQBxQatp5nPRnSD31q2Oh_rYlSpxpNXNXtyAVA_31udV8WbxYb9QwzJS_TWXErg1m4evRAhvrg-MU" width="383px;"/></strong></p> <p><span class="s2"><strong><a href="http://mainelandings.org/2012/07/20/the-art-of-fishing-many-generations-pursue-gulf-tuna/">The Art of Fishing: Many Generations Pursue Gulf Tuna<br/></a></strong></span>April Gilmore • <em>Landings</em> • July 20, 2012</p> <p><span class="s2"></span>Good news first: the Weiner family—the men Seabrook observed harpooning for tuna back in &#8216;94—is still making their living on the ocean. Chris Weiner, the comic book-reading 12-year old depicted in <em>Harper&#8217;s</em> is now 30 and working alongside his dad and younger brother. Now here’s the bad news: the Weiners&#8217; fellow tuna fishermen report a significant decline in both fish caught and money to be made.</p> <blockquote> <div> <p>The last few years I don’t think I’ve gone more than eight or ten times during the summer due to the fact that there are a lot of small fish around,” Eric said. “It’s changed drastically even from five or six years ago, let alone compared to when they were younger,” he said referring to his past generations. “In the 90’s the price was good. You’d have up to fifteen buyers down on the wharf every night. Now I think they say there are only five buyers for the whole east coast.</p> </div> </blockquote> <p><span class="s2"><a href="http://bangordailynews.com/2011/05/27/politics/maine-fishermen-relieved-by-bluefin-ruling/"><strong>Maine Fishermen Relieved by Bluefin Ruling</strong></a></span></p> <p>Clarke Canfield • <em>Bangor Daily News</em> • May 2011</p> <p>Two decades ago, Seabrook’s sources in the tuna industry questioned reports that the fish’s population was diminishing. The debate continues today, heightened especially in 2011 when to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) worked to determine whether to protect bluefin tuna under the Endangered Species Act. Ultimately, tuna was not labeled as endangered, but rather a “species of concern”—much to the comfort of Maine’s fishing industry and the concern of conservationists.</p> <blockquote> <div> <p>“We view it as ludicrous the suggestion that fishermen could fish a highly migratory species like bluefin to extinction and have always thought (the Endangered Species Act) was an inappropriate tool,” he said.</p> <p>Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, said not listing the species as endangered validates the work of fishermen who are trying to conserve the fish.</p> <p>“This is great news for Maine fishermen and our coastal communities,” Pingree said. “Not listing tuna as endangered will be a huge relief to the many families in Maine who depend on it for their living.”</p> </div> </blockquote> <p><span class="s2"><strong><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/magazine/27Tuna-t.html?ref=magazine&amp;pagewanted=all">Tuna’s End<br/></a></strong></span>Paul Greenberg • <em>New York Times Magazine</em>  • Jun 2010</p> <p>For some, there is no question that bluefin tuna are in danger. Beginning with a Greenpeace mission to sabotage a major tuna haul off the coast of Malta, Greenberg offers an updated, globalized evaluation of tuna’s cultural, economic and environmental significance. Ultimately he asks: Will we deplete (or have we already depleted) the worldwide bluefin tuna population beyond repair?</p> <blockquote> <div> <p>All fish change color when they die. But with tuna the death shift feels more profound. Fresh from the water, their backs pulsing neon blue, their bellies gleaming silver-pink iridescence, they seem like the ocean itself.</p> <p>And in a way they are, which explains the second reason bluefin have come to possess such totemic power. For bluefin tuna and all species of tuna are the living representation of the very limits of the ocean. Their global decline is a warning that we just might destroy our last wild food.</p> </div> </blockquote> <p><span class="s2"><strong><a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2007/06/sushi200706?printable=true">If You Knew Sushi<br/></a></strong></span>Nick Tosches • <em>Vanity Fair</em> • June 2007 </p> <p>A stroll through Tokyo’s<em> Tsukiji</em>, the world’s largest seafood market, and the mecca of the global sushi trade provides a glimpse into the individuals, businesses and country that primarily fuel the tuna fishing industry.</p> <blockquote> <div> <p>Occasionally tuna mania overtakes an auction. Hiroyasu Ito, the president of Chuo Gyorui, the biggest of the wholesalers and auction houses in terms of sales volume, tells me of a January morning in 1999 when an Oma tuna came to auction through his firm. It appeared to be the perfect tuna, a vision of true <em>kata.</em></p> <p>Ito-san remembers that the auction started modestly at ¥9,000, or about 75 bucks, per kilo. &#8220;And then ¥10,000, ¥20,000, ¥30,000, and ¥40,000. And then three men wanted that tuna very badly.&#8221; The bidding among them escalated furiously. &#8220;At ¥50,000 per kilo, one of them gave up.&#8221; The remaining two continued to compete. &#8220;Ninety thousand, and then ¥100,000 was the last.&#8221;</p> <p>The tuna weighed 200 kilos. At ¥100,000 per kilo, the possessed bidder had paid ¥20 million—the equivalent of more than $170,000—for a fish whose parceled meat could never recoup that amount.</p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/08/02/100802crbo_books_kolbert?currentPage=all">The Scales Fall<br/></a></strong>Elizabeth Kolbert • <em>New Yorker</em> • August 2010 </p> <p>In outlining the history and possible future of humans’ relationship with the Atlantic bluefin tuna, Kolbert notes a number of related books recently published and the emergence of “a new kind of fish story—a lament not for the one that got away but for the countless others that didn’t.”</p> <blockquote> <div> <p>The new fish stories can be read as parables about technology. What was, once upon a time, a stable relationship between predator and prey was transformed by new “machinery” into a deadly mismatch. This reading isn’t so much wrong as misleading. To paraphrase the old N.R.A. favorite, FADs [fish aggregating devices] don’t kill fish, people do.</p> <p>In an effort to figure out what ocean life was like before the modern era, marine scientists have, in the past few decades, cored through seafloor sediments, measured the size of fish bones tossed out at ancient banquets, and combed through the logs of early explorers. As Callum Roberts reports in “The Unnatural History of the Sea” (2007), the work suggests that humans have been wreaking havoc in the oceans for centuries.</p> </div> </blockquote> <p><span class="s2"><strong><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/the-gloucester-fish-war-11222011.html">The Gloucester Fish War<br/></a></strong></span>Brendan Borell • <em>Businessweek</em> • November 2011</p> <p>Bluefin tuna isn’t the only declining ocean species stuck in the middle of a battle between government agencies and fishermen. In Massachusetts, cod overfishing has become a contentious issue that is changing and challenging both the NOAA and the American fishing industry.</p> <blockquote> <div> <p>They were looking for the auction’s founder and chief executive officer, a mustached man named Larry Ciulla. When they found him in an office off the auction floor, they officially informed him of their search warrant. They suspected he had illegally bought and sold cod, one of the world’s most valuable, most threatened, and closely watched stocks of fish. The agents were there to seize the auction’s last three years of records and had rented a U-Haul for the mountain of evidence they intended to truck away. In raiding the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction, the largest fish dealer on the Gulf of Maine, which extends from Cape Cod up to the southern tip of Nova Scotia, they hoped to send a message to the fishermen of Gloucester: Overfishing doesn’t pay.</p> </div> </blockquote> <p><span class="s2"><strong><a href="http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/take-action/impact-of-seafood/#/seafood-decision-guide/">The Impact of Seafood<br/></a></strong></span><em>National Geographic </em>• 2012 </p> <p>Are you a fish lover and a fish eater? Don’t dismay. Here’s an interactive info box detailing the larger environmental impact of consuming certain seafood and tips on how to keep eating fish and mollusks guilt-free.</p> <blockquote> <div> <p>Today’s health, safety, and sustainability considerations can make it complicated to determine the best seafood choices for you and your family. This interactive guide compiles all the information you need to continue to eat healthfully while lowering your seafood footprint. Use it to find out where your favorite fish ranks in sustainability, mercury level, and omega-3 content, as well its place in the food chain—and why it matters.</p> </div> </blockquote> <p><em><strong>—Laura Clark</strong></em></p>http://blog.longform.org/post/34102865791http://blog.longform.org/post/34102865791Mon, 22 Oct 2012 12:25:00 -0400<iframe class="tumblr_audio_player tumblr_audio_player_33312321227" src="http://blog.longform.org/post/33312321227/audio_player_iframe/longformblog/tumblr_mbowb6cRO91rbu1zu?audio_file=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tumblr.com%2Faudio_file%2Flongformblog%2F33312321227%2Ftumblr_mbowb6cRO91rbu1zu" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" scrolling="no" width="500" height="169"></iframe><br/><br/><p><a class="tumblr_blog" href="http://longformpodcast.tumblr.com/post/33308421748/chris-jones">longformpodcast</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p><strong>Episode 10: Chris Jones (Live in Romania)</strong></p> <p>Episode 10: Before a live audience in Bucharest hosted by the Romanian magazine <em><a href="http://www.decatorevista.ro/">Decât o Revistă</a></em>, Evan Ratliff interviews Chris Jones.</p> <blockquote> <p class="p1">“It just feels good to fucking win… If you want to say ‘Let’s get rid of [journalism awards],’ no problem. But if they exist, I want to win them. Just because I won two—I know Gary Smith has won four. I want five. Unless Gary Smith wins five, and then I want six. That’s just how I work. And maybe that’s a terrible, competitive, creepy thing. But journalism is competitive.”</p> </blockquote> <hr><p>Show notes and links:</p> <ol><li><a href="http://www.esquire.com/features/teller-magician-interview-1012">“The Honor System”</a> (Esquire • Sep 2012)</li> <li><a href="http://www.esquire.com/print-this/zanesville-0312?page=all">“Animals”</a> (Esquire • Mar 2012)</li> <li><a href="http://www.esquire.com/print-this/things-that-carried-him?page=all">“The Things That Carried Him”</a> (Esquire • Mar 2008)</li> <li><a href="http://www.esquire.com/print-this/price-is-right-perfect-bid-0810">“TV’s Crowning Moment of Awesome”</a> (Esquire • Jul 2010)</li> <li><a href="http://www.esquire.com/print-this/roger-ebert-0310">“Roger Ebert: The Essential Man”</a> (Esquire • Mar 2010)</li> <li><a href="http://longform.org/author/chris-jones/">Jones on Longform</a></li> <li><a href="http://twitter.com/mysecondempire">@mysecondempire</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.decatorevista.ro/">Decât o Revistă magazine</a></li> </ol></blockquote>http://blog.longform.org/post/33312321227http://blog.longform.org/post/33312321227Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:36:07 -0400<p><em>Further Reading is a new blog feature in which we take a deeper look at topics from stories featured on Longform. It is produced along with<a href="http://writing.pitt.edu/"> Pitt Writers.</a></em><br/><strong><br/></strong>Last week, Longform picked a piece from <em>GQ</em>’s Karen Russell on <a href="http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201210/one-eyed-matador?printable=true">the comeback of Juan Jose Padilla</a>, a Spanish matador left partially blind after being gored through the face by a bull’s horn. Russell explores the cultural tradition of bullfighting and the dangerous glory it promises its toreadors. Some readers, however, found more compassion for bull than fighter:<strong><br/><img height="379" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/Qi3qWR19xt1C8mu3vOKYoph_kowWMprU6pVvrabnIJYgoG8PgMXN3Eg4Zxr539AjYW9P6JzkB9FVG7VL0759QT1U9e5Bta1TxQwLIP3froq49ssjwt4" width="500px;"/></strong></p> <p>Here&#8217;s some further reading on matadors and the ethical arguments around bullfighting, plus a pair of dispatches from the most famous writer to explore the sport: </p> <p><strong><!-- more --></strong></p> <p align="center"><img height="397px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/KFIEibnw0az9ozpbhioyfs3ZHIZxhaGhSDjkxCRnQ_gpqU8PbLBi-uK8wT3ESeByj0W269U3O16ftDqg_V3OHG3x3kz-gnLM72EIZrpRxgR5pzkHNQo" width="500px;"/><br/>Juan Jose Padilla the day he left the hospital after being gored.</p> <p><strong><a href="http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/comment/articles/2012-09/13/juan-jose-padilla-matador-bullfighting-interview/viewall">The Last Matador</a><br/></strong>Alexander Fiske-Harrison • GQ UK • Sep 13, 2012<br/><strong><br/></strong>A mentee of Juan Jose Padilla before the goring that would take his eye, Fiske-Harrison offers an intimate post-injury interview with the bullfighter, along with an exploration of the changing business and ethos of bullfighting in modern Spain.<strong><br/></strong></p> <blockquote> <p>As Spain&#8217;s financial woes keep unemployment up - despite a recent £80m bailout plan - politicians are looking to bullfighting&#8217;s working-class heritage to instil in voters a sense of nationalistic pride, hard-fought nowadays in a country split by its economic debt. It seems to be working. Earlier this year, the people of Guijo de Galisteo, a small town in western Spain, voted to turn their back on austerity and use the £12,000 cash pot collected by the town hall to hire bulls for their summer festivities later this year, rather than to pay local people to carry out odd jobs about the municipality.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/is-this-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-bullfighting-2360921.html">Is This the Beginning of the End for Bullfighting?</a><br/></strong>Alasdair Fotheringham • The Independent  • Sep 26, 2011<br/><strong><br/></strong>As Karen Russell mentions, bullfights were not shown on Spanish television between 2006 and 2012 and were banned completely from Catalonia at the beginning of this year. Following the region’s last bullfight, a look at changing attitudes towards the cultural tradition:<strong><br/></strong></p> <blockquote> <p>Recent polls show that more than 60 per cent of Spaniards now express a dislike for bullfighting, although only half of those are in favour of outright prohibition. There has also been a drastic drop in the number of bullfights, figures reported by the El Pais newspaper show. Even in the bullfighting heartland of Andalusia, the number of fights fell by 50 per cent between 2007 and 2010.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong><a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1019220/index.htm">Only the Bull Is Safe<br/></a></strong>Bill Barich • Sports Illustrated • May 2000</p> <p>In California, Portuguese-Americans are keeping the tradition of bullfighting alive—without killing any animals.</p> <blockquote> <p>Pinto brought out the cape known as a muleta for the fight&#8217;s last act. It was made of red serge and was smaller than his first cape. He teased the bull into a series of charges, stamping his foot and crying, &#8220;Eh, toro, toro!&#8221; but the bull was growing tired, and Pinto finally walked away, his back to the horns in defiance. Some cows with clanging bells trotted into the ring to lead the bull back to the pen, accompanied by two cowherds. That&#8217;s how a fight ends in Portugal. The bull dies at a slaughterhouse, not by a matador&#8217;s sword in front of the crowd. In the San Joaquin, the bull isn&#8217;t killed.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong><a href="http://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/La-Matadora-Revisa-Su-Maquillaje-The-Bullfighter-Checks-Her-Makeup.html?page=all">La Matadora Revisa Su Maquillaje (The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup)</a><br/></strong>Susan Orlean  • Outside • Dec 1996<strong><br/><br/></strong>On Christina Sanchez, the professional female matador who caused a sensation in Spain.</p> <blockquote> <p>Before she started training to be a matador, she had worked in a beauty parlor and then as a typist at a fire-extinguisher factory, and both jobs drove her crazy. She is a very girly girl&#8212;she wears makeup, she wants children, she has boyfriends&#8212;but she says she could only imagine doing jobs which would keep her on her feet, and coincidentally those were jobs that were mostly filled by men. If she hadn&#8217;t become a matador, she thinks she would have become a trainer at a gym, or a police officer, or perhaps a firefighter, which used to be her father&#8217;s backup job when he was a bullfighter, in the years before he started advising her and became a full-time part of her six-person crew. She didn&#8217;t become a woman matador to be shocking or make a feminist point, although along the way she has been shunned by some of her male colleagues and there are still a few who refuse to appear in a corrida with her. Once, in protest, she went to Toledo and instead of having a corrida in which three matadors each killed two bulls, she took on all six bulls herself, one by one. She said she wants to be known as a great matador and not an oddity or anecdote in the history of bullfighting.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong> <br/><a href="http://www.details.com/culture-trends/critical-eye/201012/matador-bull-fighter-prodigy-boy-king?printable=true">The Justin Bieber of Bullfighting</a><br/></strong>Lawrence Lowe • Details • Dec 2010<br/><br/>Michelito Lagrevere is a 12-year-old Mexican matador renowned for his bull-killing abilities and cool attitude in the ring.</p> <blockquote> <p>Though he stands just four feet ten—short, even for a kid who is about to turn 13—Michelito has become internationally renowned for his exploits in the ring. By his own estimate, he has already put the sword to 300 bulls. Ask him if he remembers his first kill and he says, &#8220;It was October 27, 2005, in my mother&#8217;s home state of Tabasco. I was 6 years old.&#8221; Four years later he tried to set a Guinness World Record for novice bullfighters (novilleros) by slaying six bulls in a single appearance—and succeeded, but Guinness refused to recognize it. (&#8220;We do not accept records based on the killing or harming of animals,&#8221; its website explained.) This past June, Michelito became the youngest matador ever to perform in the world&#8217;s largest bullfighting arena; he was such a hit that he was invited back in August. That time, Michelito got knocked to the ground by a big black bull by the name of Manguero—coming dangerously close to catching its horn; but he managed to pick himself up, then to thrust his sword between the bull&#8217;s shoulder blades.</p> </blockquote> <p><img height="316px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/WarBVox7GbxQYq3_bUsGPrJMXvZgikSCZF1XOX9s-bEKLSOpYUHcMRyS0nvg0K91GFTkdEvoGWjVx7NqrrioaIxS2BmV3m-GALwK0i1LLnnsBlVE1Wk" width="533px;"/></p> <p><strong><br/><a href="http://ehto.thestar.com/marks/bullfighting-is-not-a-sport-it-is-a-tragedy">Bullfighting Is Not a Sport, It Is a Tragedy</a><br/></strong>Earnest Hemingway  • The Toronto Star Weekly • Oct 1923</p> <p>What would a look at Spanish bullfighting be without a nod to Hemingway? Here&#8217;s his account of seeing his first bullfight, in Pamplona.</p> <blockquote> <p>I had noticed Villalta. He was straight as a lance and walked like a young wolf. He was talking and smiling at a friend who leaned over the barrera. Upon his tanned cheekbone was a big patch of gauze held on with adhesive tape.</p> <p>“He got gored last week at Málaga,” said the American.</p> <p>The American, whom later we were to learn to know and love as the Gin Bottle King, because of a great feat of arms performed at an early hour of the morning with a container of Mr. Gordon’s celebrated product as his sole weapon in one of the four most dangerous situations I have ever seen, said: “The show’s going to begin.”</p> </blockquote> <p><strong> <br/><a href="http://ehto.thestar.com/marks/tancredo-is-dead">Tancredo Is Dead</a><br/></strong>Ernest Hemingway  • The Toronto Star Weekly • Nov 1923<strong><br/><br/></strong>On a man who made his name in the bullring, but not as a fighter.<strong><br/></strong></p> <blockquote> <p>No. He was neither an opera singer nor a five-cent cigar. He was once known as the bravest man in the world. And he died in a dingy, sordid room in Madrid, the city where he had enjoyed his greatest triumphs.</p> <p>For many years Tancredo was famous throughout the Latin world. For ten minutes’ work he used to get $5,000. And he worked early and often. But a woman impersonator came along and spoiled the whole game for him.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong id="internal-source-marker_0.5323770728427917"><br/><em>-Laura Clark</em></strong></p>http://blog.longform.org/post/33235965561http://blog.longform.org/post/33235965561Tue, 09 Oct 2012 12:29:04 -0400<p align="center"><em><img height="200" src="http://i.imm.io/GrwH.jpeg" width="500"/></em></p> <p><em>Further Reading is a new blog feature in which we take a deeper look at topics from stories featured on Longform. It is produced along with <a href="http://writing.pitt.edu/">Pitt Writers.</a></em><br/><br/>Last week Longform picked a <a href="http://www.details.com/culture-trends/critical-eye/201210/india-syndrome-death-enlightenment?printable=true"><em>Details</em> piece by Scott Carney</a> on the sometimes-perilous journey of Westerners seeking spirituality in India. Carney tells the stories of several young people, including a 28-year-old named Jonathan Spollen, who have gone missing, lost their minds, or both:</p> <blockquote> <p>Stories like Spollen&#8217;s feel like Eastern versions of Into the Wild, the 1996 book about a young adventurer who died after trying to live off the land in Alaska: They&#8217;re tales of willful idealists whose romantic notions of remote lands lead them to embark on quixotic journeys.</p> </blockquote> <p>In case you missed <em>Into the Wild</em>, Christopher McCandless’s story, here’s Jon Krakauer original article for <em>Outisde</em>: “<a href="http://chugachpics.tripod.com/mccandless.html">Death of an Innocent</a>.” And here&#8217;s more reading on yogis, meditation, and, of course, the Beatles in India:</p> <p><!-- more --></p> <p><strong><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3236118.stm">Fasting Fakir Flummoxes Physicians</a><br/></strong>Rajeev Khanna • BBC News  • November 2003</p> <p>The strange case of Prahlad Jani&#8212;a yogi who claims not to have eaten for years.</p> <blockquote> <p>&#8220;I feel no need for food and water,&#8221; says Mr Jani, who claims he was blessed by a goddess at the age of eight and has lived in caves ever since.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong><a href="http://www.dharmafellowship.org/library/essays/chod.htm">Chöd: An Advanced Type of Shamanism</a></strong><br/>Dharma Fellowship Member Library<br/><br/>There are many types of meditation to experience in India. Carney mentions “[a] practice known as Chöd [which] involves meditating over actual decaying corpses in a graveyard.” Learn about this fascinating activity from the Dharma Fellowship:</p> <blockquote> <p>In Chöd-practice, the yogi or yogini journeys into the night world—the dangerous regions of ghosts, spirits and the damned, to bless all souls lost for a time on the wheel of existence. The selflessness of the practitioner&#8217;s compassion, his or her contact with spirits of the other-world, and the making of himself into a vehicle of healing, all tends to become a path for the hero to win the noetic Mind-Jewel of true awakening. </p> </blockquote> <p><strong><a href="http://www.mensjournal.com/article/print-view/the-quiet-hell-of-extreme-meditation-20120821">The Quiet Hell of Extreme Meditation</a></strong><br/>Michael Finkel • Men’s Journal • August 2012<br/><br/>For a more lighthearted look at the agony and benefits of a silent meditation retreat, see this dad fight through back pain and “waterfall” thoughts:</p> <blockquote> <p>Every group session begins with the same words from Goenka: &#8220;Start with a calm and clear mind.&#8221; Then he goes on to give further advice. But I can&#8217;t even get to step one. Everyone else in the room, it seems to me, is floating gleefully on a crystalline lake. I realize I can quit; I&#8217;m not being held here against my will. But there&#8217;s a part of me that believes a breakthrough is imminent. I&#8217;m a bull-headed man. I know how to endure. I once ran 100 miles in a single day (in 23 hours and 48 minutes, to be precise). I&#8217;m absurdly competitive – I can even turn something as airy-fairy as a meditation course into a kind of sporting event. And if all these other people are still here, no way am I leaving. This isn&#8217;t dangerous. I&#8217;m not climbing some 8,000-meter peak or crawling through a war zone. All I have to do is sit. Simplest thing in the world. So I soldier on.</p> <p>But something happens to me. Something bad. It might be bearable to suppress my natural extroversion – to shut me up completely. Or you can corral my need to run or bike or swim or climb – to immobilize me completely. But the combination of the two is deadly. I have actually climbed an 8,000-meter peak; I have crawled through war zones. And let me tell you: Both of those are way easier than Vipassana. This coddled and calm environment generates in me a frightening rage. I begin to hate my fellow students. I hate the teachers. I hate the Dharma Servers. I hate Goenka. I hate the food and my bed and my cushion and my cell. I hate Vipassana. I hate myself.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2006/03/the_medical_tourist_returns.single.html">The Medical Tourist Returns</a></strong><br/>Laura Moser • Slate • March 2006<br/><br/>Not all Westerners go looking for spiritual revival; some are medical tourists. Laura Moser hopes a yoga retreat in famous Rishikesh will heal her injured shoulder:</p> <blockquote> <p>The streets of Rishikesh teem with earnest foreigners like Belinda, independently financed South Asia-lovers from France, Italy, Israel, Japan, and all corners of the British Commonwealth—just about everywhere except America, in fact. They sit with erect spines inside the town&#8217;s pizzerias and rhapsodically compare medicinal baths in heavily accented English, the common tongue. The town&#8217;s real activity takes place inside the ashrams and yoga centers that offer around-the-clock yoga instruction.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/arts/07iht-07yogi.9826732.html?_r=1&amp;pagewanted=all">Meditation on the Man Who Saved the Beatles</a></strong><br/>Allan Kozinn • New York Times • February 2008<br/><br/>The Beatles find creative inspiration in India:<br/>        <span class="Apple-tab-span"> <br/></span></p> <blockquote> <p>But whatever other powers transcendental meditation had, under its influence they wrote like demons. The main body of evidence is the White Album, a two-disc collection of 30 songs, more than twice the number on any previous Beatles album. And that doesn&#8217;t count two songs — George Harrison&#8217;s &#8220;Not Guilty&#8221; (which bears traces of bruised feelings over the maharishi incident) and &#8220;What&#8217;s the New Mary Jane&#8221; — that were recorded during the <em>White Album</em> sessions but left unreleased until &#8220;Anthology 3,&#8221; in 1996.</p> </blockquote> <p><em>—<a href="https://twitter.com/RoJoOhNo">Robyn Jodlowski</a></em></p>http://blog.longform.org/post/32738800888http://blog.longform.org/post/32738800888Tue, 02 Oct 2012 11:48:00 -0400<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb8cqnJpOV1qzbn6bo1_r1_500.png"/><br/><br/><h2>Now Available: Longform for iPad 1.1</h2> <p>We’re thrilled to release our first major update to Longform for iPad, which you can <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/longform/id490437064">download now in the App Store</a>. This new version includes a slew of improvements, including three biggies:  </p> <h2>Dark Mode</h2> <p>Our most requested feature will be requested no more: dark mode is here. Now you can read at night without fear of bothering your bedmate. Toggling between dark and light mode is easy—you can switch in the global settings menu or while reading an article. </p> <p><img height="387" src="http://longform.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/font-menu.png" width="512"/></p> <h2>New Fonts and Fine-Grain Control</h2> <p>Longform 1.1 includes three gorgeous new fonts: Hoefler Text, Tisa and Palatino. You’ll find them in our redesigned font menu, which now allows for fine-grain control over text size, line height, and column width.</p> <p align="center"><img height="100" src="http://longform.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/New-Mags.jpg" width="500"/></p> <h2>More Magazines</h2> <p>With 1.1, we’ve nearly doubled the number of magazines you can follow. Fans of Longform.org will see several familiar names—<em>The New Republic</em>, <em>Gawker</em>, and <em>ProPublica</em> are now in the app<em>—</em>while readers with particular interests in design, sports, and tech will all be pleased. We’ve also added some amazing international magazines, including <em>The Caravan</em> from India, <em>The Global Mail</em> from Australia and Germany’s <em>Der Spiegel</em>. Here’s the full list:</p> <ul><li><a href="http://arstechnica.com/">Ars Technica</a></li> <li><a href="http://bostonreview.net/">Boston Review</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.caravanmagazine.in/">The Caravan</a></li> <li><a href="http://theclassical.org/">The Classical</a></li> <li><a href="http://deadspin.com/">Deadspin</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/">Der Spiegel English</a></li> <li><a href="http://designobserver.com/">Design Observer</a></li> <li><a href="http://edge.org">Edge</a></li> <li><a href="http://gawker.com">Gawker</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.theglobalmail.org/">The Global Mail</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.interviewmagazine.com/">Interview</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.themillions.com/">The Millions</a></li> <li><a href="http://thenewinquiry.com/">The New Inquiry</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.tnr.com/">The New Republic</a></li> <li><a href="http://pitchfork.com/">Pitchfork</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.propublica.org/">ProPublica</a></li> <li><a href="http://The%20Rumpus">The Rumpus</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.salon.com/">Salon</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/">Scientific American</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/">Smithsonian</a></li> <li><a href="http://theverge.com/">The Verge</a></li> </ul><p><strong>Other features in Longform 1.1:</strong></p> <ul><li>iOS 6 compatibility </li> <li>Redesigned top bar for improved reading experience</li> <li>New fonts and a more fine-grained text control</li> <li>One-touch sharing with Readability, Instapaper and Pocket</li> <li>Faster updating</li> <li>Numerous bug fixes and performance improvements</li> </ul><p><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/longform/id490437064">Download the update from iTunes</a>.</p>http://blog.longform.org/post/32683949174http://blog.longform.org/post/32683949174Mon, 01 Oct 2012 16:11:00 -0400<p><em>Further Reading is a new blog feature in which we take a deeper look at topics from stories featured on Longform. It is produced along with<a href="http://writing.pitt.edu/"> Pitt Writers.</a></em><br/><strong><br/></strong>Last week, Longform picked a <a href="http://www.westword.com/2012-09-20/news/joe-arridy-death-row/0/">piece</a> by <em>Westword</em>’s Alan Prendergast about the 1939 execution of a mentally disabled man coerced into admitting to a crime he didn’t commit. A year after Colorado issued Joe Arridy its first-ever posthumous pardon, Prendergast explores the circumstances leading to the execution and the fight—70 years later—to clear the young man’s name. Suggestions for further reading about coerced confessions, wrongful convictions, the insanity defense and the death penalty:</p> <p><strong><!-- more --><br/><br/></strong></p> <p align="center"><img height="248px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/yNMvKcl4MAF5QmKq7DVkCnVdgFhkRr5lFIRy4IQxVniejTkhzvBdmP8otaJV7vDZbW3DAm_smG7CdO1QQINQMqWDj2q-SMTX2mlZmjnaq7LX3vze_d9W" width="320px;"/><br/>Joe Arridy gives away his toy trains before his execution.</p> <p><strong><br/><a href="http://www.friendsofjoearridy.com/The_Poem.html">“The Clinic”</a><br/>Marguerite Young • Moderate Fable  • 1944<br/><br/></strong>Activist Robert Perske hadn&#8217;t heard of Joe Arridy’s execution until 1992, when a friend sent him an obscure poem on the subject. The verses inspired nearly two decades of investigation and advocacy, eventually resulting in Arridy’s pardon.</p> <blockquote> <p>In the corridor a toy train pursued<br/>Its tracks past countryside and painted station<br/>Of tinny folk. The doomed man’s eyes were glued<br/>On these, he was the tearless one</p> <p>Who waited unknowing why the warden wept<br/>And watched the toy train with the prisoner<br/>Who watched the train, or ate, or simply slept.<br/>The warden wrote a sorry letter,</p> <p>“The man you kill tonight is six years old,<br/>He has no idea why he dies,”<br/>Yet he must die in the room the state has walled<br/>Transparent to its glassy eyes.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong><br/><a href="http://nymag.com/news/crimelaw/68715/">“I Did It”</a><br/></strong>Robert Kolker  • New York Magazine  • Oct 2010<strong><br/><br/></strong>Mentally handicapped or not, why would someone confess to a crime they didn’t commit? On the practices and circumstances that can lead to false confessions:<strong><br/></strong></p> <blockquote>“You’re right, this is bullshit,” Sennett said before walking out of the room. “I think you killed this lady, and I’m going to prove it.” <p>Sterling was trembling now, verging on hysteria. He had been in the small room for close to eight hours. Crough came in again at 2:40 a.m. and started rubbing Sterling’s back. “I was whispering,” Crough said later, “simply that we would not dislike him, that we were here for him, we understood—we felt he should tell the truth to get it off his chest.” Crough’s partner, Thomas Vasile, held Sterling’s other hand, and the two detectives huddled around him for a long time, gently reassuring him. Finally, according to the police report, Sterling blurted out, “I did it … I need help.”</p> </blockquote> <p><strong><br/><a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/cms/printthis.php?file=feature2.php&amp;issue=2010-10-01">Innocence Lost</a><br/></strong>Pamela Colloff • Texas Monthly • Oct 2010<strong><br/><br/></strong>In 1992, Anthony Graves was arrested for brutally murdering a family in the middle of night. He had no motive. There was no physical evidence. The only witness recanted. And yet Graves remained behind bars:<strong><br/></strong></p> <blockquote> <p>“You’re Anthony Charles Graves?” asked the justice of the peace, glancing up from the warrant that she held before her. She was flanked by two police officers.</p> <p>“Yes, ma’am,” he said.</p> <p>“Anthony, this is going to be your warning of rights,” she said. Her delivery was matter-of-fact: “You’re charged with the offense of capital murder.”</p> <p>“Who?” he said, dumbfounded. He stared back at her blankly.</p> <p>“An affidavit charging you for this offense has been filed in court,” she continued. As she read him his Miranda rights, he watched her in disbelief. “At this time, no bond has been set,” she said. “Do you understand what I’ve told you, Anthony?”</p> <p>Graves held up his hands in protest. “Capital murder?” he said, incredulous. “Me? Wh-wh-who murdered? I mean—”</p> <p>A man wearing a white Western hat interrupted him. “You’ll have a chance to talk to the officers who are actually working the case,” he said.</p> <p>“This is a big mistake,” Graves said, his voice rising. “Capital murder?” Dubious, he turned to the police officer who had brought him down to the station. “This is a joke,” he said, breaking into a grin, as if he were suddenly on to the elaborate prank that he seemed certain was being played on him. “Somebody’s messing with me, right?” The officer, who did not smile back, ordered him to have a seat.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong><br/><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann?currentPage=all">Trial By Fire</a><br/></strong>David Grann • The New Yorker • Sep 2009<strong><br/></strong><br/>Cameron Todd Willingham was convicted and sentenced to die for killing his two children, a crime he almost certainly did not commit:<strong><br/><br/></strong></p> <blockquote> <p>Another crucial piece of evidence implicating Willingham was the “crazed glass” that Vasquez had attributed to the rapid heating from a fire fuelled with liquid accelerant. Yet, in November of 1991, a team of fire investigators had inspected fifty houses in the hills of Oakland, California, which had been ravaged by brush fires. In a dozen houses, the investigators discovered crazed glass, even though a liquid accelerant had not been used. Most of these houses were on the outskirts of the blaze, where firefighters had shot streams of water; as the investigators later wrote in a published study, they theorized that the fracturing had been induced by rapid cooling, rather than by sudden heating—thermal shock had caused the glass to contract so quickly that it settled disjointedly. The investigators then tested this hypothesis in a laboratory. When they heated glass, nothing happened. But each time they applied water to the heated glass the intricate patterns appeared. Hurst had seen the same phenomenon when he had blowtorched and cooled glass during his research at Cambridge. In his report, Hurst wrote that Vasquez and Fogg&#8217;s notion of crazed glass was no more than an “old wives&#8217; tale.”</p> </blockquote> <p align="center"><img height="274px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/EbVGJqDU9xiZlV-nEvfJthns8FfNxoO7w6MZYtS_t_tkRoxNPNSauvTPe9K_r95lZODU-YXhUj4fSWobnkSiJHIzDLVxc54clpoXPTXSPOjcSYDGKOj7" width="200px;"/></p> <p>Joe Arridy says goodbye to his mother before being taken to the gas chamber.</p> <p><strong>  <br/><a href="http://www.maryellenmark.com/text/magazines/rolling%20stone/920S-000-011.html">On the Row</a><br/></strong>Tina Rosenberg • Rolling Stone • October 1995<strong><br/><br/></strong>Where should we draw the line with the death penalty? On a convict too young to vote but old enough to be strapped to a chair:<strong><br/><br/></strong></p> <blockquote> <p>In the last 15 years, only Iraq and possibly Iran have executed more minors, and only six other countries have executed even one. Some of the very qualities that make juvenile criminals most terrifying—their impulsiveness, a tendency to fall under the sway of others and a need to prove their toughness to the group—raise questions about their suitability for a punishment that the law reserves for a small group of the most morally culpable killers. Minors are thought too immature to sit on a jury, vote, buy beer or watch an X-rated movie, yet they are considered responsible enough to pay for their crimes with their lives.</p> <p>The case of Joseph Hudgins illustrates all these issues. His rashness, lack of judgment and susceptibility to the domination of others might have brought him to kill 21-year-old police officer Christopher Taylor.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong><a href="http://www.dallasobserver.com/content/printVersion/2511715/">Can Accused Killer Seth Winder Stay Sane Long Enough to Stand Trial?</a><br/></strong>Brantley Hargrove • Dallas Observer • Jan 2012<br/><br/>The process of trying and punishing the questionably competent hasn’t gotten simpler since Arridy’s time. On murder and mental illness:</p> <blockquote> <p>It would be more than three years before the &#8220;I don&#8217;t knows&#8221; gave way to a trial, during which the legal system would face a daunting Catch 22: Winder is a paranoid schizophrenic, and without antipsychotic medication he is too insane to be prosecuted. But with medication he becomes someone else entirely, capable even of calm rationality. He would have to be induced into a state of synthetic sanity before he could stand trial for a crime that he allegedly committed while unmedicated.</p> <p>For now, though, he was just another uncooperative suspect.</p> <p>&#8220;We need your help. Are you going to help us?&#8221; Thompson&#8217;s index finger jackhammered the photo. &#8220;Look at him!&#8221;</p> <p>With his slight build and his short, blond hair, Winder looked hunted, like a boy among men. He looked up at the detectives and murmured, &#8220;I don&#8217;t remember.&#8221;</p> </blockquote> <p><strong><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/08/of-mice-and-men-the-execution-of-marvin-wilson/260713/">Of Mice and Men: The Execution of Marvin Wilson</a><br/></strong>Andrew Cohen • The Atlantic  • Aug 2012<br/><br/>In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled against executing the mentally impaired but with no clear consensus on what constitutes impairment, executions of cognitively disabled convicts still take place. Andrew Cohen argues against a recent execution in Texas:<strong><br/></strong></p> <blockquote> <p>At 6:26 p.m local time last night, an hour or so after the last appeal was denied, Texas executed a mentally retarded black man named Marvin Wilson, a man who could not handle money or navigate a phone book, a man who sucked his thumb and could not always tell the difference between left and right, a man who, as a child, could not match his socks, tie his shoes or button his clothes, a 54-year-old man with an IQ of 61* which, his attorneys were quick to point out, is &#8220;below the first percentile of human intelligence.&#8221;</p> </blockquote> <p><strong id="internal-source-marker_0.7415780916344374"><em>-Laura Clark</em><br/><br/><br/><br/></strong></p>http://blog.longform.org/post/32265859870http://blog.longform.org/post/32265859870Tue, 25 Sep 2012 11:51:14 -0400<iframe class="tumblr_audio_player tumblr_audio_player_31877390446" src="http://blog.longform.org/post/31877390446/audio_player_iframe/longformblog/tumblr_malu4klUsq1rbu1zu?audio_file=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tumblr.com%2Faudio_file%2Flongformblog%2F31877390446%2Ftumblr_malu4klUsq1rbu1zu" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" scrolling="no" width="500" height="169"></iframe><br/><br/><p><a class="tumblr_blog" href="http://longformpodcast.tumblr.com/post/31863762601/ta-nehisi-coates">longformpodcast</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p><strong>Episode 7: Ta-Nehisi Coates</strong></p> <p>Ta-Nehisi Coates, senior editor at <em>The Atlantic</em> and author of <em>The Beautiful Struggle</em>, interviewed by Evan Ratliff.</p> <blockquote> <p class="p1">“I was 24 when my son was born. People always say that kids get in the way, right? But actually it had the opposite effect on me. I feel like I could have spent my twenties doing all sorts of self-destructive things - that was my natural inclination - but having a kid suddenly makes that not OK…. The stakes of everything just went up. I think I’m the type of person where, for any reason, I only respond to pressure. That kid just so raised the pressure, for everything. … So I started writing for the <em>Washington Monthly</em>, and the <em>Monthly</em> pays shit, everybody knows that, right? They were paying ten cents a word at this point. But because they have these big-shots writing for them, nobody ever calls for the check! But I would say, ‘no, I need you to send me that check. Yeah, I know it’s only $150, but I actually need that check, you really need to send that check.’”</p> </blockquote> <p><img src="http://longform.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/ratliffcoates.png"/></p> <hr><p>Show notes and links:</p> <ol><li><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/ta-nehisi-coates/">Coates’s blog for The Atlantic</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/09/fear-of-a-black-president/309064/?single_page=true">“Fear of a Black President”</a> (The Atlantic • Aug 2012)</li> <li><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/05/-8216-this-is-how-we-lost-to-the-white-man-8217/6774/">“‘This Is How We Lost to the White Man’”</a> (The Atlantic • May 2008)</li> <li><a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0203.coates.html">“Confessions of a Black Mr. Mom”</a> (Washington Monthly • March 2002)</li> <li><a href="http://longform.org/author/ta-nehisi-coates/">Coates on Longform</a></li> </ol></blockquote>http://blog.longform.org/post/31877390446http://blog.longform.org/post/31877390446Wed, 19 Sep 2012 16:48:45 -0400<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mak551dSHj1qzbn6bo1_500.png"/><br/><br/><p>Everyone has seen the gorgeous design on these new Pitchfork “Cover Story” features, right?</p>http://blog.longform.org/post/31804865458http://blog.longform.org/post/31804865458Tue, 18 Sep 2012 14:10:13 -0400<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mak0f17SBt1qzbn6bo1_500.png"/><br/><br/><p>Longform made Time’s <a href="http://techland.time.com/2012/09/18/50-best-websites-2012/#longform">annual list</a> of the 50 best websites. </p>http://blog.longform.org/post/31800272047http://blog.longform.org/post/31800272047Tue, 18 Sep 2012 12:28:00 -0400<p><p class="c0"><em><span class="c11 c3 c2">Further Reading is a new blog feature in </span><span class="c11 c3 c2">which we take a deeper look at topics from stories featured on Longform. It is produced along with </span><span class="c8 c11 c3 c2"><a class="c6" href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwriting.pitt.edu%2F&amp;sa=D&amp;sntz=1&amp;usg=AFQjCNFrdaedta7-R0ziPH7iFV90GBdGqg">Pitt Writers</a></span><span class="c3 c2 c11">.</span></em></p> <p class="c0 c1"><span class="c2">Last week, Longform picked a </span><span class="c8 c2"><a class="c6" href="http://thebillfold.com/2012/09/crushing-debt-drove-me-to-kosovo-and-then-to-iraq/">piece from The Billfold</a></span><span class="c2"> on the crushing burden of student loan debt. The anonymous author, out of equal parts desperation and wanderlust, was driven to a pair of war-torn nations in search of cash. Suggestions for further reading about debt, Kosovo, and Iraq:</span></p> <p class="c0 c1"><span class="c2"><!-- more --></span></p> <p class="c0 c1"><strong><a class="c6" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/business/student-loans-weighing-down-a-generation-with-heavy-debt.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_moc.semityn.www">Degrees of Debt<br/></a></strong><span class="c3 c2">Andrew Martin and Andrew Lehren</span><span class="c2"> </span><span class="c3 c2">• New York Times • May 2012</span><span class="c2"> </span></p> <p class="c0 c1">The Billfold author had $90,000 in debt; while high, that isn’t outside the norm. An entire generation faces extraordinary student loan debt, and many simply can’t make their payments. Here’s a four-part breakdown of America’s educational debt culture, and several students’ attempt to navigate it:</p> <blockquote> <p class="c0 c10"><span class="c3 c2">Education Department data shows that </span><span class="c3 c2">payments are being made</span><span class="c3 c2"> on just 38 percent of the balance of federal student loans, down from 46 percent five years ago. The balances are unpaid because the borrowers are still in school, have postponed payments or have stopped paying altogether.</span></p> <p class="c0 c10"><span class="c3 c2">Nearly one in 10 borrowers who started repayment in 2009 defaulted within two years, </span><span class="c3 c2">the latest data available</span><span class="c3 c2"> — about double the rate in 2005.</span></p> </blockquote> <p class="c0"><strong><span class="c2 c8"><a class="c6" href="http://nplusonemag.com/bad-education">Bad Education<br/></a></span></strong><span class="c2">Malcolm Harris </span><span class="c3 c2">• n+1 • April 2011</span></p> <p class="c0 c1">On the perils of the student debt industry, which Harris believes is operating in a bubble that&#8217;s about to burst.</p> <blockquote> <p class="c0 c10"><span class="c2">Today, student debt is an exceptionally punishing kind to have. Not only is it inescapable through bankruptcy, but student loans have no expiration date and collectors can garnish wages, social security payments, and even unemployment benefits. When a borrower defaults and the guaranty agency collects from the federal government, the agency gets a cut of whatever it’s able to recover from then on (even though they have already been compensated for the losses), giving agencies a financial incentive to dog former students to the grave.</span></p> </blockquote> <p align="center"><strong><span class="c8 c2"><img height="200" src="http://i.imm.io/EHDA.jpeg" width="500"/></span></strong></p> <p class="c0"><strong><span class="c8 c2"><a class="c6" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/balkans/overview/kosovo.htm">Kosovo: The Jerusalem of Serbia</a></span></strong><span class="c2"> <br/></span><span class="c2">Aileen Yoo </span><span class="c3 c2">• Washington Post • July 1999</span></p> <p class="c0 c1">Don’t know much about the war in Kosovo? Here’s a pre-independence primer.</p> <blockquote> <p class="c0 c1">On the surface, the fighting is a bloody tug-of-war between ethnic Albanians and Serbians over Kosovo, a province of Serbia (Yugoslavia&#8217;s dominant republic) where ethnic Albanians comprise a majority of the population. Fighting for an independent Kosovo state is the rebel group of ethnic Albanians. Fighting against the rebels are Serbian forces of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who will not cede control.</p> </blockquote> <p class="c0"><strong><span class="c8 c2"><a class="c6" href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2008/02/nation-born-long-bitter-path-kosovos-independence">A Nation is Born: The Long, Bitter Path to Kosovo’s Independence<br/></a></span></strong><span class="c2">Laura Rozen </span><span class="c3 c2">• Mother Jones • February 2008</span></p> <p class="c0"><span class="c3 c2">In 1999, NATO forces sought to end violence in the region. The peacekeepers struggled.</span></p> <blockquote> <p class="c0 c4"><span class="c3 c2">It was only then, after the Serbian occupation had been driven out, that I learned an ugly lesson: that sometimes when the oppressed are liberated, they act with the brutality of their former tormenters. In the aftermath of the 1999 Nato intervention in Yugoslavia, ethnic cleansing continued, only this time the majority of the atrocities being meted out were by the majority Albanians against the province&#8217;s </span><span class="c3 c2">minority Serbs</span><span class="c3 c2">, Roma, and Turks. It was a phenomenon witnessed later in the aftermath of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.</span></p> </blockquote> <p class="c0 c1"><a class="c6" href="http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16228654,00.html"><strong>Is Kosovo Ready for Full Independence?</strong><br/></a><span class="c2">Bahri Cani </span><span class="c3 c2">• Deutsche Welle • September 2012</span></p> <p class="c0"><span class="c3 c2">In 2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. </span><span class="c2">Groups like Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Billfold author’s initial employer, and International Steering Group (ISG), had helped stabilize the new nation. Now, amidst staggering economic challenges in Kosovo, they’re pulling out.</span></p> <blockquote> <p class="c4 c0"><span class="c3 c2">With an average yearly income of about 2,000 euros ($2,558) per person, Kosovo is still Europe&#8217;s poor house. Officially, unemployment sits at 43 percent, and 40 percent of the population lives in poverty. Major challenges include the fight against corruption and organized crime.</span></p> </blockquote> <p class="c0 c1 c13"><a class="c6" href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/06/13/the_man_who_would_be_king?page=full"><strong>The Man Who Would Be King</strong><br/></a><span class="c2">Ben Van Heuvelen </span><span class="c3 c2">• Foreign Policy • June 2011</span></p> <p class="c4 c0 c1 c5">The Billfold author left Kosovo for an even more dangerous job in wartime Iraq, setting up the 2005 elections. Here’s more on the 2005 elections, and the tenure of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.</p> <blockquote> <p class="c4 c0"><span class="c3 c2">When Maliki took office, he inherited an Iraqi state that was, like his political persona, remarkably undefined. The 2005 Constitution had left unanswered several of the most important and contentious questions about the shape of the country. The insurgency was gaining momentum, and the tough tradeoffs of democracy were simply too thorny to sit around and debate. As a result, when Iraqis voted to ratify the 2005 Constitution in a national referendum, they approved a document that pictured the new state in an attractive soft focus.</span></p> </blockquote> <p align="center"><strong><img height="200" src="http://i.imm.io/EHFu.jpeg" width="500"/></strong></p> <p class="c0 c1"><strong><a class="c6" href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/06/06/110606fa_fact_stillman?currentPage=all">The Invisible Army<br/></a></strong><span class="c2">Sarah Stillman </span><span class="c3 c2">• </span><span class="c2">New Yorker </span><span class="c3 c2">• </span><span class="c2">June 6, 2011</span></p> <p class="c0 c1">On contract employees and the money they (might) make.</p> <blockquote> <p class="c4 c0"><span class="c2">The extensive outsourcing of wartime logistics—first put to the test during the Clinton Administration, in Somalia and the Balkans—was designed to reduce costs while allowing military personnel to focus on combat. In practice, though, military privatization has produced convoluted chains of foreign subcontracts that often lead to cost overruns and fraud.</span></p> </blockquote> <p class="c0"><em><span class="c9 c2">&#8212;</span><span class="c8 c2 c9"><a class="c6" href="http://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Frojoohno&amp;sa=D&amp;sntz=1&amp;usg=AFQjCNG30PznE-_W2Qm47-2BVxK13QO8gw">Robyn Jodlowski</a></span></em></p></p>http://blog.longform.org/post/31736995376http://blog.longform.org/post/31736995376Mon, 17 Sep 2012 13:25:00 -0400<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mai3bdGGwX1qbfm1po1_400.gif"/><br/><br/><p><a class="tumblr_blog" href="http://wnyc.tumblr.com/post/31732035715/as-part-of-30-issues-in-30-days-wnyc-is">wnyc</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>As part of <strong>30 Issues in 30 Days</strong>, WNYC is partnering with <strong>Longform.org</strong> to bring you great stories on the key issues this election season. Check out <a href="http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/blogs/scrapbook/2012/sep/17/longform-issues-jobs-tomorrow-jobs-today/">the first batch</a> of six articles on <strong>jobs, education, and the economy</strong>. More stories every Monday between now and the election.</p> </blockquote>http://blog.longform.org/post/31734793655http://blog.longform.org/post/31734793655Mon, 17 Sep 2012 12:38:50 -0400<a href="http://xoxofest.com/">LF at XOXO</a>: <p>Headed to Portland for <a href="http://xoxofest.com/">XOXO Festival</a>? Longform’s Aaron Lammer will be there, too. Come say hi! </p>http://blog.longform.org/post/31344679556http://blog.longform.org/post/31344679556Tue, 11 Sep 2012 14:21:00 -0400<p><em>Editor&#8217;s note: This is the first installment of a new blog feature in which we take a deeper look at topics from stories featured on Longform. It is produced along with <a href="http://writing.pitt.edu/">Pitt Writers</a>. </em></p> <p>Last week Longform picked interviews with a pair of Pulitzer Prize winners, Katherine Boo and Jonathan Gold. Suggestions for further reading:</p> <p><img height="298" src="http://i.imm.io/E0xG.jpeg" width="450"/><br/><strong>Katherine Boo</strong> covers poverty and social welfare issues in the United States and elsewhere for <em>The New Yorker</em>. Last February marked the release of her first book, <em><a href="http://www.behindthebeautifulforevers.com/">Behind the Beautiful Forevers</a></em>, which employs three years of immersive reporting to tell the story of Annawadi, a slum outside of Mumbai, and the lives of its residents. In <a href="http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/reporting-poverty/">the interview that made Longform&#8217;s picks</a>, Boo talked with <em>Guernica</em>&#8217;s Emily Brennan about journalistic ethics, the limits of language, and her approach to judiciously writing about her subjects. Here are some of her earlier pieces, plus an NPR interview about the book.</p> <p><!-- more --></p> <p><strong><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/daily/march99/grouphome14_full.htm">Invisible Lives</a></strong><br/>Katherine Boo • Washington Post • Mar 1999<br/><br/>In this Pulitzer Prize-winning two-part article, Boo investigates the dire conditions of group homes for the mentally retarded in Washington D.C.</p> <blockquote> <p>‘RETARDS’ reads a slash of paint on a door of the Forest Haven cottage where Elroy, Stith and the other &#8220;kids&#8221; used to live. The abandoned gym where they danced the mashed potato is now white with asbestos frost. About this ghost-place, a thousand case files lie discarded. Here is Elroy&#8217;s. Here is Stith&#8217;s, and the predator&#8217;s &#8212; clinical case jottings about subjects who once were children.</p> <p>Elroy, that bit of a boy in outsize glasses, proudly leading the canteen cleanup crew.</p> <p>DeWitt Stith, whom the other children chose on May Day to be the flag bearer. Who, asylum colors streaming, grinned and high-stepped his way across the grass.</p> <p>Those kids are gone.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong><a href="http://www.newamerica.net/publications/articles/2003/the_marriage_cure">The Marriage Cure</a><br/></strong>Katherine Boo • New Yorker • Aug 2003<br/><strong><br/></strong>In an Oklahoma City neighborhood usually left off city maps, the federal government is implementing its $300 million anti-poverty plan: teaching poor Americans how to get married.</p> <blockquote> <p>One July morning last year in Oklahoma City, in a public-housing project named Sooner Haven, twenty-two-year-old Kin Henderson pulled a pair of low-rider jeans over a high-rising gold lamé thong and declared herself ready for church. Her best friend in the project, Corean Brothers, was already in the parking lot, fanning away her hot flashes behind the wheel of a smoke-belching Dodge Shadow. &#8220;Car&#8217;s raggedy, but it&#8217;ll get us from pillar to post,&#8221; Corean said when Kim climbed in. At Holy Temple Baptist Church, two miles down the road, the state of Oklahoma was offering the residents of Sooner Haven three days of instruction on how to get and stay married.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/11/28/051128fa_fact?currentPage=all">Shelter and the Storm</a><br/></strong>Katherine Boo • New Yorker • Nov 2005<br/><strong><br/></strong>When the storm finally passed, some victims of Hurricane Katrina found they had lost more than their homes and possessions—they also lost the bad conditions and luck that had kept them poor in the city. Inside an emergency shelter in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, refugees’ hopes for metamorphosis are met with racial and socioeconomic tensions that may prevent positive change before it has begun.</p> <blockquote> <p>Popular sympathy, at least outside Terrebonne Parish, was with the displaced people, now known collectively as victims; and with that concern came the opportunity (“should they choose to take it” was the standard qualifier) to turn tragedy into renewal. Former residents of the Lower Ninth Ward and other segregated neighborhoods of New Orleans might now be supported in their attempts to advance into the cultural and economic mainstream—“to ascend to normalcy,” as Gary Harrell put it. It was a romance of transformation, and for some of the adults unpacking trash bags of possessions on the basketball court this idea of fresh starts had a basis in fact: lost in the flood was evidence of schooling that had stopped at ninth grade, misadventures in the work world, pending appointments in court.</p> <p><strong><br/></strong></p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Listen: <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/02/08/146575908/finding-life-death-and-hope-in-a-mumbai-slum">Finding ‘Life, Death and Hope’ in a Mumbai Slum<br/></a></strong>Dave Davies • Fresh Air • Feb 8&#160;2012</p> <p>Davies interviews Boo about her book, <em>Behind the Beautiful Forevers</em>.<strong> <br/></strong></p> <blockquote> <p>Often in journalism, stories about the poor began with a reporter going to an NGO and saying tell me about the good work you&#8217;re doing, and let me follow you, and maybe if you could just pick out some real success stories, I&#8217;ll write about them. I think that those kind of stories do an injustice to the enormous amount of creative and enterprising problem-solving that low-income people do for themselves, that most of the ways that people get out of poverty in the United States, in India and anywhere else I&#8217;ve ever been, is through their own imaginations and their own fortitude.</p> </blockquote> <hr><p align="center"><br/><img height="293px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/b3pB8PAxGRePxlkMmf6VkUYKZncVB_aD4FhzEYNphVDN6pWlSlfTVzL_gX6ptx8rf-XVctCX68ERJNJ52fcJQN39EW0CoMdiCWQwLiA1aHoOxuU9294" width="430px;"/><br/><em>Jonathan Gold celebrates after winning the Pulitzer.</em></p> <p>In 2007, <strong>Jonathan Gold</strong> became the first restaurant critic to win a Pulitzer Prize; last week <a href="http://www.believermag.com/issues/201209/?read=interview_gold">his interview in the new issue of <em>The Believer</em></a> was a Longform pick. Gold sat down for a meal with Andrew Simmons to discuss everything from the complexities of representing taste through writing to poverty’s relation to unique cuisine. If you read the <em>Believer</em> interview and are in the market for more Gold, here are some of his classic reviews, plus a <em>New Yorker</em> profile and an podcast on his former career as a music reviewer.</p> <p><strong><br/><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/11/09/091109fa_fact_goodyear">The Scavenger</a><br/></strong>Dana Goodyear • New Yorker • Nov 2009<br/><br/>Dana Goodyear embarks on an in-depth exploration of Gold’s life as the first food critic to win a Pulitzer. Particular focus is given to the critic’s role in opening up Los Angeles’s eclectic food scene to culinary neophytes and others too nervous to eat what they don’t yet know.<strong><br/></strong></p> <blockquote> <p>For nearly twenty-five years, Jonathan Gold, the high-low priest of the L.A. food scene, has been chronicling the city’s carts and stands and dives and holes-in-mini-malls; its Peruvian, Korean, Uzbek, Isaan Thai, and Islamic Chinese restaurants; the places that serve innards, insects, and extremities. He tells his readers where to get crickets, boiled silkworm cocoons, and fried grasshoppers. On their behalf, he eats hoof and head and snout, and reveals which new populations have come to town, and where they are, and what they’re cooking up.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong><br/><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304186404576388162157376414.html">Food Fight!</a><br/></strong>Jonathan Gold • Wall Street Journal Magazine • Jun 2011<strong><br/><br/></strong>Following the announcement that Noma in Copenhagen was named World&#8217;s Best Restaurant, Jonathan Gold takes to the table to compare the Danish eatery against Alinea in Chicago, ranked North America’s best restaurant.<strong><br/></strong></p> <blockquote> <p>A chef brings over a tiny saucepan of forest-green ramson oil, which he spoons over the cooked white. You scatter herbs and wildflowers, and break off whorls from a potato-chip helix. The fragrance of Nordic spring drifts from the pan: the distant smoke, the dampness of thawed earth, the secret pungency of the forest floor. You have discovered what it might be like to fry an egg in the spring woods if you had perfect ingredients and the resources of one of the world&#8217;s great kitchens. A hundred tiny things have been orchestrated to ensure that you will be eating the best fried egg of your life.</p> </blockquote> <p><strong><br/><a href="http://www.laweekly.com/2011-04-07/eat-drink/jonathan-gold-reviews-the-olive-garden/">Jonathan Gold Reviews the Olive Garden</a><br/></strong>Jonathan Gold • L.A. Weekly • Apr 2011<strong><br/><br/></strong>Originally Gold originally just wanted to play a joke on his photographer, but ended up taking on one of America’s most popular restaurants.<strong><br/></strong></p> <p>It was simple: We were going to meet at the Olive Garden, where we would act like tourists and explore the wonders of seafood alfredo and unlimited bread sticks, to express for once the simple goodness of Venetian apricot chicken and grilled shrimp caprese, of chicken scampi and smoked mozzarella fonduta and lasagna fritta. (What is lasagna fritta? Apparently rolled lasagna sliced into thick discs, crisped in trans-fat-free boiling oil and served with a marinara dipping sauce. Words for once fail me.)</p> <p><strong><br/></strong></p> <p><strong>[Listen] <a href="http://www.foodisthenewrock.com/podcastcomingsoon">Food is the New Rock Podcast: Interview with Jonathan Gold</a><br/></strong>Zach Brooks • foodisthenewrock.com • Jun 2012<br/><strong><br/></strong>Gold wrote music reviews nearly ten years before becoming an award-winning food writer. When the food and music blog Food is the New Rock got wind of Gold’s affinity, they asked him to sit for a podcast interview to discuss his contrasting loves. The critic responded with the following email:<strong><br/></strong></p> <blockquote> <p>Hey,</p> <p>Sure, I guess. As long as you understand that with a few exceptions, my knowledge of pop pretty much slammed shut in late ‘96, around the time of the death of Tupac. I can talk with Talmudic subtlety about the 20 years before that, when I played in punk bands, ran clubs, wrote about rap, hard rock and what was then called “electronica” for the L.A. Times, Spin and Rolling Stone, and played the Boswell to Snoop Dogg’s Samuel Johnson - but at the point when all roads led to Britney Spears, Metallica became a boogie band and hip-hop violence stopped being a cartoon, it was time for me to exit, stage left. Ever gotten stinkeye from Suge Knight? You would have changed professions too.</p> <p><strong><br/></strong></p> <p>Jg</p> </blockquote> <p><strong id="internal-source-marker_0.3168946639634669"><br/><em>—Laura Clark</em></strong></p>http://blog.longform.org/post/31342059792http://blog.longform.org/post/31342059792Tue, 11 Sep 2012 13:19:00 -0400<p><strong><em>Update, Monday 8/27: </em></strong><em>Testing is now closed. Thanks to everyone who volunteered!</em></p> <p>We&#8217;ve been hard at work on an update to<a href="http://longformapp.com"> our iPad app</a>, and it&#8217;s almost done. But we need to make sure every last kink has been worked out.  </p> <p>If you have an iPad and some free time this weekend, we&#8217;re looking for a small group of volunteers to test a private beta version of the update. You&#8217;ll have our eternal thanks&#8230;and a free story from our friends at <a href="http://atavist.com">The Atavist</a>.</p>http://blog.longform.org/post/30120964978http://blog.longform.org/post/30120964978Fri, 24 Aug 2012 16:38:00 -0400<iframe class="tumblr_audio_player tumblr_audio_player_29973715116" src="http://blog.longform.org/post/29973715116/audio_player_iframe/longformblog/tumblr_m95yu736Hk1rbu1zu?audio_file=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tumblr.com%2Faudio_file%2Flongformblog%2F29973715116%2Ftumblr_m95yu736Hk1rbu1zu" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" scrolling="no" width="500" height="169"></iframe><br/><br/><p>SO DAVID GRANN IS ON THE PODCAST THIS WEEK AND WE’RE A LITTLE EXCITED.</p> <p><a class="tumblr_blog" href="http://longformpodcast.tumblr.com/post/29972380978/david-grann">longformpodcast</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p><strong>Episode 3: David Grann</strong></p> <p>David Grann, staff writer at <em>The New Yorker</em>, talks with Max Linsky. </p> <blockquote> <p class="p1">“You don’t always know all the answers. I think that’s what kinda makes life interesting. The thing that makes these stories real, while they are in some ways unfathomable, [is that] there’s an uneasiness of certitude. Because there are things that are not always known, there are elements of doubt, and that can be very haunting…In some of the stories, you get as close as you can to all you know—and then there are parts that elude you.”</p> </blockquote> <hr><p>Show notes and links:</p> <ol><li><a href="http://davidgrann.com/lost-city-of-z/">“The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon”</a> (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lost-City-Deadly-Obsession-Amazon/dp/0385513534">Amazon</a>)</li> <li><a href="http://www.tnr.com/print/article/politics/crimetown-usa">“Crimetown, U.S.A.”</a> (The New Republic • July 2000)</li> <li><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/05/28/120528fa_fact_grann?currentPage=all">“The Yankee Comandante”</a> (New Yorker • May 2012)</li> <li><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/05/24/040524fa_fact1?currentPage=all">“The Squid Hunter”</a> (New Yorker • May 2004)</li> <li><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann?currentPage=all">“Trial By Fire”</a> (New Yorker • Sep 2009)</li> <li><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/08/11/080811fa_fact_grann?printable=true">“The Chameleon”</a> (New Yorker • Aug 2008)</li> <li><a href="http://davidgrann.com/">davidgrann.com</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/davidgrann">@davidgrann</a></li> <li><a href="http://longform.org/author/david-grann-2/">Grann on Longform</a></li> </ol></blockquote>http://blog.longform.org/post/29973715116http://blog.longform.org/post/29973715116Wed, 22 Aug 2012 13:27:00 -0400<iframe class="tumblr_audio_player tumblr_audio_player_29552619806" src="http://blog.longform.org/post/29552619806/audio_player_iframe/longformblog/tumblr_m8sx55kY8E1rbu1zu?audio_file=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tumblr.com%2Faudio_file%2Flongformblog%2F29552619806%2Ftumblr_m8sx55kY8E1rbu1zu" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" scrolling="no" width="500" height="169"></iframe><br/><br/><p><a class="tumblr_blog" href="http://longformpodcast.tumblr.com/post/29490478178/episode-2-janet-reitman-rolling">longformpodcast</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p><strong>Episode 2: Janet Reitman</strong></p> <p><em>Rolling Stone</em> contributing editor and <em>Inside Scientology</em> author Janet Reitman talks with Aaron Lammer. </p> <blockquote> <p class="p1">“I’m very open about the fact that I know nothing…. Every reporter should admit you know nothing, and when you do, there will be people that will take pity on you, and try to teach you. And then you have to be shrewd enough to know who’s spinning you, and who is being genuine.”</p> </blockquote> <hr><p>Show notes and links:</p> <ol><li><a href="http://www.janetreitman.com/book/">“Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion”</a> (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Scientology-Americas-Secretive-Religion/dp/0547750358/ref=tmm_pap_title_0">Amazon</a>)</li> <li><a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/confessions-of-an-ivy-league-frat-boy-inside-dartmouths-hazing-abuses-20120328?print=true">“Confessions of an Ivy League Frat Boy: Inside Dartmouth’s Hazing Abuses”</a> (Rolling Stone • Mar 2012)</li> <li><a href="http://www.janetreitman.com/articles/sex-and-scandal-at-duke/">“Sex and Scandal at Duke”</a> (Rolling Stone • June 2006)</li> <li><a href="http://www.janetreitman.com/baghdad-follies/">“Baghdad Follies”</a> (Rolling Stone • July 2004)</li> <li><a href="http://www.janetreitman.com/">janetreitman.com</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/janetreitman">@janetreitman</a></li> <li><a href="http://longform.org/author/janet-reitman/">Reitman on Longform</a></li> </ol></blockquote>http://blog.longform.org/post/29552619806http://blog.longform.org/post/29552619806Thu, 16 Aug 2012 10:52:21 -0400