Some recent favorites.
- In Walker County, Alabama, a mentally ill man spent 14 days naked and freezing in a jail cell while guards jeered. He died. Twenty of the sheriff's employees have been federally indicted and the sheriff is asking voters for a third term.
- In 1978, Ralph Coleman shot and killed his wife, son, and niece during a PTSD-fueled breakdown after Vietnam. His surviving daughter forgave him. He died in prison last year, still waiting on clemency. His story is told alongside the lawyer who spent her career trying to free him.
- The Black Forest's signature spruce trees are being wiped out by bark beetles and drought. For families who have farmed the same valley for 30 generations, the landscape, and the knowledge that came with it, is disappearing.
- (Gift Link) The researchers at HAARP in Alaska study the ionosphere. They also field calls blaming them for every hurricane, earthquake, and suspicious aurora on the planet. A journalist visited to see what it's like to do boring science under permanent conspiratorial siege.
All featured in the Lunch Break Reads newsletter.