But if Maggie was sheltered from the onslaught beyond her small town, her mother was not. Erika has also struggled with her weight her entire life and feels the experience defined her; she has done everything she can to reassure Maggie that she is beautiful as she is and to protect her from the casual cruelty of people she encounters. But she also knew from the time her daughter was young that there was something different about her. In a small, dark part of herself, Erika feared that, because of her parenting or her habits or her own history with food, she was the one at fault. Even now, after all the interventions — the doctors, the fighting with insurance companies, the overhaul of the family fridge — this worry has not left her. It has only evolved, because Erika knows her neighbors and people in the world beyond have things to say not just about Maggie’s body but about the treatments she has chosen for it, too.

This week, we’re sharing stories from Brett Forrest, Lizzie Presser, Ahmet Altan, Lisa Miller, and James K. Williamson.

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1. The FBI Lost Our Son

Brett Forrest | Wall Street Journal | October 11, 2019 | 30 minutes (7,680 words)

The FBI’s counterterrorism unit recruited Billy Reilly to infiltrate terror and criminal networks as a part-time confidential source. Part of a wave of workers recruited post-9/11, Billy did not receive the training, protections, or compensation of a full-time agent. After he went missing during an operation in Russia in 2015, no one inside the FBI would take responsibility.

2. When Medical Debt Collectors Decide Who Gets Arrested

Lizzie Presser | ProPublica | October 16, 2019 | 22 minutes (5,575 words)

The judge has no legal background. The lawyer gets a cut of any collections. And the people of Coffeyville end up buried in debt or in jail or both, just for trying to go to the doctor.

3. Voyage Around My Cell

Ahmet Altan | The Paris Review | October 10, 2019 | 10 minutes (2,717 words)

Turkish journalist Ahmet Altan has been jailed since 2016, as part of a media purge following the failed coup d’état. Life in prison has four loci: the bed, the chair, and yard, and the imagination.

4. One Night at Mount Sinai

Lisa Miller | The Cut | October 15, 2019 | 27 minutes (6,899 words)

Lisa Miller exposes Mount Sinai Hospital’s culture of sexism and bullying, which enabled emergency room doctor David Newman to sexually abuse female patients before one of them, Aja Newman (no relation) brought him down.

5. Everything He Wrote Was Good

James K. Williamson | Oxford American | September 3, 2019 | 32 minutes (8,055 words)

Talented, troubled ─ unlike Willie Morris and Marshall Frady’s legacies, the life and work of Southern writer Johnny Greene has largely been forgotten, until another writer tried to piece it together. It wasn’t easy. It still isn’t entirely clear.

This week, we’re sharing stories from Amy Wallace, Katherine Laidlaw, Lisa Miller, Porochista Khakpour, and Lauren Schwartzberg.

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1. The Hollywood Exec and the Hand Transplant That Changed His Life

Amy Wallace | Los Angeles Magazine | Mar 20, 2017 | 36 minutes (9,000 words)

In her final feature for Los Angeles Magazine, Amy Wallace tells the incredible story of Jonathan Koch, “one of Hollywood’s great closers,” who lost several limbs and nearly his life to septic shock before receiving a revolutionary hand transplant.

2. A Place of Absorption

Katherine Laidlaw | Hazlitt | Mar 16, 2017 | 12 minutes (3,183 words)

Katherine Laidlaw recalls an abusive relationship in which her boyfriend threatened her with a boxcutter. In examining why she stayed as long as she did, she observes how the emotional scars affect her thinking and perception in what should be a new, exciting relationship — to the point where “Everything now — a flicker of tone, a sideways glance, a distant voice on the end of the phone — is a sign, a flag, a warning.”

3. John Hinckley Left the Mental Hospital Seven Months Ago

Lisa Miller | New York Magazine | Mar 21, 2017 | 27 minutes (6,839 words)

Thirty-four years after being committed to Saint Elizabeths Hospital after being found not guilty by reason of insanity for shooting Ronald Reagan to impress actor Jodie Foster, John Hinckley is free. Well, “free.” In a fascinating profile that also digs into the limits of both psychiatry and juries, Lisa Miller details some of the conditions of Hinckley’s release into the custody of his 90-year-old mother.

4. Why This Persian New Year is Different

Porochista Khakpour | CNN | Mar 20, 2017 | 7 minutes (1,862 words)

A personal essay by Iranian-born novelist Porochista Khakpour about her apprehension and lack of excitement about Nowruz, the Persian New Year, at a time when it feels unsafe to be of Muslim heritage in America.

5. Why Millennial Pink Refuses to Go Away

Lauren Schwartzberg | New York Magazine | Mar 19, 2017 | 19 minutes (4,900 words)

It’s a muted form of pink—more sophisticated than bubblegum, more luxurious than eraser pink—and it can be found on book covers, runways, Pinterest boards, cosmetics labels, and almost any Instagram feed. It’s been around almost as long as millennial-hating has been around, and it also shows no signs of letting up.

Thirty-four years after his commitment to Saint Elizabeths Hospital, after being found not guilty by reason of insanity for shooting Ronald Reagan to impress actor Jodie Foster, John Hinckley is free. Well, “free.” In a fascinating New York magazine profile that also digs into the limits of both psychiatry and juries, Lisa Miller details some of the conditions of his release into the custody of his 90-year-old mother.

Under the order of a federal judge, Hinckley has to live with his mother for at least a year. He must remain in treatment with mental-health professionals in Williamsburg, who have to be in regular touch with the doctors at St. Elizabeths and the court. He may not travel more than 50 miles from home, and he may not contact Foster or any of his other victims. He may not knowingly travel to places where “current or former Presidents” will be present, and if he finds himself in such locations he must leave. He may play his guitar in private, but in the interest of containing his narcissism, he may not play gigs. For now, he may browse the internet but not look at pornography or at information related to his crimes. He has to submit the make and model of his car to the Secret Service as well as his cell-phone number. He is encouraged to make friends in Williamsburg but may not invite a guest to sleep over at his house unless his mother (or one of his siblings, both of whom live in Dallas) is home. Violations of these terms could send him back to the hospital.

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