27 篇
Best of 2020
All of Our No. 1 Story Picks
Tethered to the Machine
“For years, JaMarcus Crews tried to get a new kidney, but corporate healthcare stood in the way. He needed dialysis to stay alive. He couldn’t miss a session, not even during a pandemic.”
Best of 2020
Crime Reporting
The Strange and Dangerous World of America’s Big Cat People美国大型猫科动物的奇异而危险的世界
Amongst one or two other things, 2020 was the year people learned the names Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin. The Netflix series Tiger King landed on our screens at the same time that many of us were in lockdown due to COVID-19, and was binge-watched by millions. This story by Rachel Nuwer was written before we met these characters on Netflix while clutching our loo rolls and hand sanitizer, and her piece sheds a brighter light on their complicated personalities.
Best of 2020
All of Our No. 1 Story Picks
Visible Men: Black Fathers Talk About Losing Sons to Police Brutality
“We asked the fathers and father figures of Michael Brown, Terence Crutcher, Daniel Prude, Rayshard Brooks, George Floyd, and Jacob Blake to reflect on the violence that forever altered their families’ lives—and what it means to raise a Black man in America.”
Best of 2020
Food
My Restaurant Was My Life for 20 Years. Does the World Need It Anymore?
This year has been a struggle for many small restaurants — with so many having to shut their doors. In this piece, Gabrielle Hamilton tells the story of the closure hers — Prune — but it is the tale of many. Written from a first-person perspective this is a deeply personal essay that exposes the pain of shuttering a lifelong dream.
Crime Reporting
The Confessions of Marcus Hutchins, the Hacker Who Saved the Internet
Andy Greenberg · Wired · 官方页
Greenberg is meticulous in his detailed analysis of Marcus Hutchins' character, a hacker who some view as a criminal, and others as the savior of the internet. It’s a thrilling story, with many twists and turns, but also an exploration into people's moral complexities.
Best of 2020
All of Our No. 1 Story Picks
The Inside Story of Michigan’s Fake Voter Fraud Scandal
“How a state that was never in doubt became a ‘national embarrassment' and a symbol of the Republican Party’s fealty to Donald Trump.”
‘It’s a National Tragedy’: What a Devastating Covid-19 Outbreak at a California Slaughterhouse Reveals About the Federal Government’s Failed Pandemic Response
“In the face of an unprecedented public health crisis, the federal agency responsible for workplace safety has essentially allowed meatpackers to regulate themselves—leading to chaos, confusion, and fear in facilities across the country.”
Food
The Sacred Ritual of Meals with My Mother
Marie Mutsuki Mockett · Elle · 官方页
In this essay, Marie Mutsuki Mockett evokes the vivid associations we can have with food. She argues that the food of our youth — given to us by our mothers — formulates our palette for the rest of our lives. As a teenager, in the hospital with pneumonia, Mockett craved “Japanese soul food” — her mother brought her pickled sour plums, rice, and seasoned ground beef, and her “body reconstituted itself out of her nourishment.” Even today, when she is sick, she yearns for those flavors.
Crime Reporting
The Wind Delivered the Story
Josina Guess · The Bitter Southerner · 官方页
It feels jarring to put the terms “beautiful” and “lynching” in the same sentence — but this personal essay about the 1947 lynching of Willie Earle is beautifully written. Guess' writing is almost lyrical — as she explains how the wind blew “history into my path” in wonderfully descriptive language.
I Hope Our Daughters Will Not Be Punished
Van der Leun’s piece details the plight of Kwaneta Yatrice Harris — who, incarcerated for killing an abusive partner, wrote her letters from solitary confinement in a Texas prison.
Best of 2020
Food
Marmalade: A Very British Obsession果酱：英国人的痴迷
This essay resonates with the pure joy that a particular food can bring, but it’s not the most obvious of foods — a bitter citrus fruit boiled in sugar to create a breakfast condiment ... a.k.a marmalade.
Flimsy Plastic Knives, a Single Microwave, and Empty Popcorn Bags: How 50 Inmates Inside a Michigan Prison Prepared a Feast to Celebrate the Life of George Floyd
Tana Ganeva · The Counter · 官方页
This is a story that puts you through a whole gamut of emotion — from frustration, admiration, joy, to sadness — all while discussing fried rice on a bagel.
Best of 2020
Food
Why Grocery Shopping Is on Its Way Out
Cory Mintz · The Walrus · 官方页
As a food writer, Corey Mintz loves a supermarket more than most — in fact, he got married in one: “between the cash register, the root-vegetable table, a group of ... friends and family, and a display of maple syrup.” In this piece, he gives us a fascinating history of the supermarket, whilst bemoaning what is unwittingly being lost by more and more people as they choose to order their groceries online.
Crime Reporting
Pleas of Insanity: The Mysterious Case of Anthony Montwheeler
Rob Fischer · Rolling Stone Magazine · 官方页
What does it mean to be “criminally insane”? The official answer sounds simple — to have a mental illness that impairs you from telling the difference between right and wrong. But mental illness is a nuanced spectrum — and, to many, it seems impossible to decipher someone’s state of mind during a crime. This story is a fascinating exploration into the complexities of the insanity plea in the United States — which, even though there are “lots of tests and things you can do to kind of back up your intuition … in the end, it’s kind of this gut feeling.”
Best of 2020