The Walls Unit in Huntsville, Texas
The Walls Unit in Huntsville, Texas where prisoners from death row are executed. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

This week, we’re sharing stories from Pamela Colloff, Amanda Fortini, Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, Ira Glass, and Linda Holmes.

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1. Blood Will Tell, Part One

Pamela Colloff | ProPublica | May 23, 2018 | 43 minutes (10,897 words)

Mickey Bryan’s husband, a beloved high school principal, was charged with killing her. Did he do it, or had there been a terrible mistake?

2. What Happened in Vegas

Amanda Fortini | California Sunday | May 21, 2018 | 31 minutes (7,805 words)

Las Vegas has long been more of a metaphor than a city, a place to lose yourself—or at least lose your money. But now also it’s a city tied up with a new identity of death and mourning, a city that is #VegasStrong. “The city passed all the expected emotions to pivot to strength,” writes Amanda Fortini. “What about #VegasSad, they joked, or #VegasAngry, or #VegasDepressed?”

3. The New Passport-Poor

Atossa Araxia Abrahamian | New York Review of Books | May 21, 2018 | 10 minutes (2,652 words)

Drawing borders around people might give us a more orderly and predictable world. But for all the promised benefits of a frictionless experience of journeying, it may not be a more humane one.

4. Ira Glass’s Commencement Speech at the Columbia Journalism School Graduation

Ira Glass | This American Life | May 17, 2018 | 22 minutes (5,503 words)

Ira Glass challenges young journalists to tear up old models and find new ways to fight the “massive machine churning out non-factual stories” and come up with “new ideas about how to reach people and what to reach them with.”

5. Under The Skin: Why That ‘Arrested Development’ Interview Is So Bad

Linda Holmes | NPR | May 24, 2018 | 9 minutes (2,343 words)

“But maybe it was this interview because the disrespect felt so benign in the delivery and so destructive in the effect.”