David Pollack / Corbis via Getty Images

This week, we’re sharing stories from Ben Blum, Reeves Wiedeman, Mizuho Aoki, Amy Wright, and Sarah Scoles.

Sign up to receive this list free every Friday in your inbox.

* * *

1. The Lifespan of a Lie

Ben Blum | Medium | June 7, 2018 | 30 minutes (7,628 words)

Dramatizations, manipulations, lies ─ the famous Stanford Prison Experiment proved to be a highly influential psychological study, even though it was hardly scientific.

2. A Company Built on a Bluff

Reeves Wiedeman | New York Magazine | June 10, 2018 | 32 minutes (8,000 words)

Vice Media grew from a free alternative magazine into a company with 3,000 employees and a multi-billion-dollar valuation. It’s also been investigated for sexual misconduct and has struggled to deliver on its promise of bringing millennials back to television, raising questions about its future.

3. Lost: Struggling to Cope with Millions of Unclaimed Items in Tokyo

Mizuho Aoki | The Japan Times | May 27, 2017 | 7 minutes (1,837 words)

When things get lost in the world’s largest city, they often end up at the Metropolitan Police Department’s lost and found center. So which one of these 3,000 umbrellas is yours?

4. Dorothy Allison: Tender to the Bone

Amy Wright | Guernica Magazine | May 18, 2018 | 21 minutes (5,311 words)

Amy Wright interviews novelist, activist, and feminist Dorothy Allison on class, how poverty can influence a life’s path, the definition of a working-class heroine, and the role of women writers in literature.

5. NASA is Learning the Best Way to Grow Food in Space

Sarah Scoles | Popular Science | June 6, 2018 | 11 minutes (2,951 words)

Sarah Scoles on how growing food in space is a critical milestone to furthering space exploration, because astronauts simply can’t haul all the fresh fruit and vegetables they’ll need to thrive during long absences from Earth.