Editor’s Note: We'll be running the article recommendations of our friends at TNR Reader each afternoon on The Plank, just in time to print out or save for your commute home. Enjoy!
The label “white woman from Kansas” obscures, rather than illuminates, who Barack Obama’s mother really was. Her story sheds new light on the complexities of interracial kinship.
W.E.B. DuBois Institute | 19 min (4, 756 words)
The girl from Vietnam's famous napalm photo spent decades trying to escape one iconic moment. Forty years later, she has begun to embrace her role in history.
The Guardian 6 min (1, 531 words)
The Steroid Era: A decade after the MLB clamped down on doping, the full costs of steroid use are finally becoming clear. And the picture isn't pretty.
Sports Illustrated | 12 min (3, 043 words)
Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army are more than horrific murderers. They have also waged a bizarre form of psychological warfare.
Literary Review | 3 min (852 words)