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How Corrupt Officials Screwed Up An Extremely Poor Town’s Big Break
By Scott Rodd—ThinkProgress—January 7, 2016— As the town council meeting let out, Albert Tardy milled around the front steps of the town hall. He wore a baseball cap and a hooded sweatshirt with the sleeves cut off, unfazed by the brisk November air. “This town is set in its ways,” he said. “In order to […]

Creeping Through the Snow Womb
By Bernd Brunner—The Smart Set—February 17, 2016— Is there a place on Earth where people had to shovel snow from their roofs during winter every day? Where they lived like moles under the snow? Where there was never a question whether or not there would be snow at the end of the year? In fact, […]

Mr. Ince and the Hope of Being Needed
By Mario Kaiser—Narratively—February 23, 2016— In the middle of the night, when the devices are dark, his antique alarm clock reminds him that his time has come. It sounds like hammering, monotonous like the melody of his days. Dursun Ince rolls out of bed and slips into blue overalls and a blue knitted sweater, then pulls […]

Narrative nonfiction writer Mario Kaiser on the importance of deeply reported journalism
ivoh—March 23, 2016— Recently ivoh featured an excerpt from “Mr. Ince and the Hope of Being Needed.” The story, written by narrative nonfiction writer, Mario Kaiser, follows the life of a Turkish day laborer in Berlin. Written over the span of a year and a half, Kaiser’s honest portrait of a day laborer’s life confronts stereotypes […]

Carey Writing Fellowship: A Gift for Writers & Readers
By Sarah Federman—How to Finish and Flourish—April 8, 2016— This blog went dormant for over six weeks because I had the great privilege of spending that time at the Carey Institute for Global Good in upstate New York. During the fellowship, I had the chance to see what it is like to write everyday without distraction — (well, […]

Adrenaline – The Calm After The Tear Gas Storm
By Donna Stefano—Litro #151—April 10, 2016— The shortest and quickest way by car from Ramallah to Jerusalem on January 17, 2009, required me to circumnavigate the Qalandia checkpoint, the largest checkpoint for Palestinians travelling between the two cities that hold most import to their daily life: one for business the other for religion. Qalandia ranks […]

Life and Death Among the Gangs of Central America
By Sarah Esther Maslin—New Republic—April 11, 2016 El Niño Hollywood was a scrappy preteen, dirt-poor and wide-eyed, when he met Chepe Furia. The 26-year-old, hardened by the Mara Salvatrucha gang on the streets of Los Angeles, had recently returned to El Salvador to build his child army. It was 1994. Furia flashed his shiny truck […]

Searching for Ground Truth in the Kunduz Hospital Bombing
By May Jeong—The Intercept—April 28, 2016— When the Taliban overran Kunduz last September after a monthlong siege, the northern Afghan city became the first to fall to the insurgency since the war began in 2001. A week earlier, many Kunduz residents had left town to observe Eid al-Adha, the sacrificial feast honoring Abraham’s act of […]

The gangs that cost 16% of GDP
By Sarah Esther Maslin—The Economist—May 21, 2016— On the 15th day of each month a bus driver in San Salvador tucks a small package wrapped in a black plastic bag under his seat and sets out on his route. At a predetermined spot between the hillside slum where the route begins and the bustling urban street […]

The Pentagon Papers: Secrets, lies and leaks
An interview with Daniel Ellsberg & Robert J. Rosenthal—Reveal—May 21, 2016— In this episode of Reveal, we’re using the full hour to take a deep look at the leaking and publication of the Pentagon Papers. At the center of the episode are two guys who have a knack for being in the room when history […]

WAMC’s Alan Chartock In Conversation With Daniel Ellsberg
WAMC—June 30, 2016— WAMC’s Alan Chartock In Conversation with Daniel Ellsberg, Activist, Lecturer, Author, and Former U.S. Military Analyst who is best known for releasing the Pentagon Papers in 1971. Listen >>

The Justice Department Will End All Federal Private Prisons, Following a ‘Nation’ Investigation
By Seth Freed Wessler—The Nation—August 18, 2016— In an historic rebuke of the private prison industry, the Department of Justice today announced plans to eliminate the use of private prisons to incarcerate federal inmates. The announcement follows the release of a critical inspector general’s report and an investigative series published in The Nation, in partnership with […]