Top 5 articles: Our top picks of the year
And the best podcasts, along with some other major cultural issues
Your top 5 articles:
“Playmobil’s Plan to Infiltrate Your Workplace” (Washington Post Magazine)
Because toys are coming to a conference table near you!
“Is Nuclear Power Worth The Risk?” (New Yorker Magazine)
Because nuclear power is clean and climate change is real, but nuclear disasters are also real.
“The Terror Queue” (The Verge)
Because in order to try and keep the internet free of violent extremist content, actual humans need to monitor and purge this content, and all that violence makes these jobs psychologically distressing and damaging.
“The Lockdown” (The Trace)
Because this audio essay initiative talked to 20 children across the country about what it’s like to grow up in an era of school drills, lockdowns and shootings, and as expected, it’s sad and alarming.
“The 50 Best Podcasts of 2019” (The Atlantic)
Because we’re going to listen to number one, and so many more sound fantastic to kick off 2020.
BONUS! Here are our top picks of the year, or essays that have stayed with us long after reading for the first time:
Michael’s: “I went to a convention for politics nerds and it filled me with dread, loathing, and existential terror” (Business Insider)
Melissa’s: “What Happened After My 13-Year Old Son Joined the Alt-Right” (The Washingtonian)
Image: “Mayor Charlie McMillan, the youngest mayor in America, in the unincorporated Grimes County community of Whitehall, gets washed off in the sink after getting some of his breakfast on himself in Whitehall, Texas, on December 20, 2019. The honorary mayoral role was auctioned off to the highest bidder during the Whitehall Volunteer Fire Department's annual BBQ fundraiser. This year, 7-month-old Charlie McMillan was the highest bidder, thereby "electing" him the youngest mayor in America.” Image credit: Mark Felix/AFP/Getty