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My Summer at an Indian Call Center →

pollgold:

“The next morning, a Saturday, I went out for a late breakfast. When I returned, there was a man sitting upright in my bed, fully clothed and fast asleep. My cell, it turned out, was now a “shared room,” and Amit was my new roommate. He was sleeping off a 36-hour triple shift at his tech-support job. For the next month, Amit and I slept side by side. The bed was wide enough that we didn’t have to touch, but we could hear each other breathing. On nights when the power cut out and the ceiling fan stopped, we would lie awake sweating and cursing and praying for relief.”

MoJo Classic.

Longreads: Celebrating Four Years of Longreads →

longreads:

Longreads just celebrated its fourth birthday, and it’s been a thrill to watch this community grow since we introduced this service and Twitter hashtag in 2009. Thank you to everyone who participates, whether it’s as a reader, a publisher, a writer—or all three. And thanks to the …

WOOT! Congrats to our pals over at Longreads!

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This Is Your Body on Microbes. On your skin, in your gut, up your nostril—read all about the bacteria that live on you (and keep you healthy!) 

In other microbial news news, we just dropped this awesome longread on why gut bacteria may be the key to losing weight. Read it here.

Solitary in Iran Nearly Broke Me. Then I Went Inside America's Prisons. →

pollgold:

“Gang evidence comes in countless forms. Possession of Machiavelli’s The Prince, Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power, or Sun Tzu’s The Art of War has been invoked as evidence. One inmate’s validation includes a Christmas card with stars drawn on it—alleged gang symbols—among Hershey’s Kisses and a candy cane. Another included a poetry booklet the inmate had coauthored with a validated BGF member. One poem reflected on what it was like to feel human touch after 14 years and another warned against spreading HIV. The only reference to violence was the line, “this senseless dying gotta end.”’

We say this at least once a month. Give it a read and let us know what you think.

Happy International Women's Day. Here are 10 badass ladies you should read about right now. →

(No. 11, it goes without saying, is Mama Jones.)

“Guillén’s death is the worst-case scenario in a recruiting system that treats young Dominicans as second-class prospects, paying them far less than young Americans and sometimes denying them benefits that are standard in the US minor leagues, such as health insurance and professionally trained medical staff.

MLB regulations allow teams to troll for talent on the cheap in the Dominican Republic: Unlike American kids, who must have completed high school to sign, Dominicans can be signed as young as 16, when their bodies and their skills are far less developed.”

The devastating story of Yewri Guillén. Read it now.

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For all the dissimilarities, botched analogies, and tortured comparisons, there has been one connecting thread in Washington’s foreign wars of the last half century that, in recent years at least, Americans have seldom found of the slightest interest: misery for local nationals. Civilian suffering is, in fact, the defining characteristic of modern war in general, even if only rarely discussed in the halls of power or the mainstream media.

— Nick Turse: “So Many People Died”: How Afghanistan and Iraq Echo Vietnam

"The Texas congressman, who is three weeks into his second term after a 16-year hiatus from the House, is almost certainly the only member of Congress to have been caught with 30 mg of valium hidden in a cellophane wrapper in his underwear. He's defended militia groups; accused an attorney general of "premeditated murder"; appeared on a Holocaust-denying radio program; waged a one-man war against Alfred Kinsey; compared his constituents—favorably—to Branch Davidians; and traveled to Denmark to protest climate change while wearing a red blindfold. The man who bested his 2012 opponent by 44 points isn't the most ballyhooed of incoming lawmakers. He's just the nuttiest." →

Meet Steve Stockman, the (two-time) freshman Republican who wants to impeach Barack Obama because GUNS.

"Tagg’s biography is littered with similar stories—short cuts he couldn’t have taken without his last name, obstacles that melted away before he was even aware of them. And yet, thanks to the Romney myth, he and his family believe that most of what he has achieved comes from old-fashioned industriousness, not older-fashioned status and wealth." →

Noam Scheiber, “Growing Up Romney”

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A Reader’s Guide to the Presidential Debate

It’s a domestic-policy hoedown. Need knowledge on guns, health care, taxes, frackin’, lady parts, and more? We’ve compiled it in a handy index for you - good longreads and great short hits to expand your brain before the political rhetoric tries to fry it.

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How many people do we imprison in America? So many that 100,000 will die… of old age.

(Part of a series of photos by Tim Gruber. “I just watched one of my subjects die,” he writes. “I don’t want to get used to this.”)

My Illegal Abortion →

When abortion rights come under attack—South Dakota doctors now have to say abortions lead to suicide and the Michigan Vaginagate bill has resurfaced—it’s important to read Eleanor Coogan’s essay about her illegal abortion in the 1960s.

It’s terrifying.

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Five Men Agree To Stand Directly Under An Exploding Nuclear Bomb

NPR’s Robert Krulwich has an amazing long Cold War story to tell. WITH VIDEO, DAMMIT!:

They weren’t crazy. They weren’t being punished. All but one volunteered to do this (which makes it all the more astonishing.)

File under “things that actually really happened that you will want to read about right now.”

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By the end of the work day I’m exhausted and dirty…Back at the Labor Ready office, I have to wait nearly 30 minutes to receive my check. The job paid $8 an hour—minimum wage. For five hours of labor, I get $37.34 after taxes. I am not paid, however, for the four hours on call, or the time spent in transit to and from the job site, or waiting to get paid. None of this meets the legal definition of wage theft, but it sure feels like it.

“Everyone Only Wants Temps,” in which our reporter signs up with this economy’s employer of last resort.

"Customers can legally buy as many weapons as they want in Arizona as long as they’re 18 or older and pass a criminal background check. There are no waiting periods and no need for permits, and buyers are allowed to resell the guns. “In Arizona,” says Voth, “someone buying three guns is like someone buying a sandwich."

— You have to be 21 to buy beer, though, because beer is dangerous. This via your morning must-read, Katherine Eban’s investigation into the Fast and Furious scandal—and why basically everything we’ve been told about it is wrong.