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+15 +3
Letter to My Son the Weekend He Died
“It’s irrational, this isn’t his fault, but I can see him (if he doesn’t die soon) at 30 or 35, telling people about his ‘best friend Paul’ and about how he tried to save you but couldn’t, and I can hear him tell it with earnestness and persuasion and even see the girl who will be with him, rub his back, and cry one single tear and think to herself, ‘What an amazing man to have come through all this.’ And Ryan—yes, by then, he’ll use his real name—will never mention his...” By Barry Friedman.
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+13 +2
Chasing Bayla
Biologist Michael Moore had waited all day — really, all his life — for the whale to surface, the suffering giant he thought he could save, that science had to save. It had come down to this... By Sarah Schweitzer.
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+25 +5
On Being a Doctor: Our Family Secrets
One day in January, I was facilitating a fourth-year elective course with eight medical students. It was a medical humanities class, and the topic that afternoon was the virtue of forgiveness. A student named David led the discussion, and I listened as they exchanged ideas. When their energy waned, I asked, “Do any of you have someone to forgive from your clinical experiences? Did anything ever happen that you need to forgive or perhaps still can't forgive?”
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+37 +5
Learning Empathy From the Dead
The first-year dissection is often an experience that teaches medical students to emotionally detach from their patients. By forcing future doctors to learn about the lives of their cadavers, some medical schools are trying to reverse the effect. By John Tyler Allen. (July 28)
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+18 +3
What’s in a Necronym?
I am named after the daughter my father lost... By Jeannie Vanasco.
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+15 +2
Forever Bluegrass
In 1968, Boxcar Pinion fell under the spell of that crazy hillbilly jazz we call bluegrass. For the last 25 years, his daughters and thousands of bluegrass pickers and fans have gathered annually to remember the spirit of the old bass player. By Tony Rehagen.
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+18 +3
Murder on the Appalachian Trail
In September 1990, a brutal double murder on the Appalachian Trail shocked the nation and left haunting questions about violence and motive. Earl Swift was hiking the route and knew the victims. Twenty-five years later, he went back to the woods of Pennsylvania, searching for answers that may never be found.
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+39 +1
The Last Days of Stealhead Joe
The Deschutes River fly-fishing guide called Stealhead Joe was an angling master with a long list of devoted clients. But as Ian Frazier, who fished with Joe last fall, learned, off the water, Joe’s life was a tangle of troubles that ultimately overwhelmed him.
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+24 +5
The Laughs, Pathos, and Overwhelming Talent of Jan Hooks
An intimate portrait of the former ‘Saturday Night Live’ star’s career and life, one year after she was laid to rest. By Mike Thomas.
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+24 +3
The Lonely Death of George Bell
Each year around 50,000 people die in New York, some alone and unseen. Yet death even in such forlorn form can cause a surprising amount of activity. Sometimes, along the way, a life’s secrets are revealed. By N. R. Kleinfield.
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+24 +7
The Barrel
For a sign language interpreter at a murder trial, the crowning achievement is utter neutrality. By Paul Auckland Best.
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+25 +3
On Mercy
Reconciling a death sentence, from a pediatric cancer ward to death row. By Lacy M. Johnson.
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+24 +2
The Ballad of Hollis Brown
Nina Simone
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+35 +4
A Lonely End for South Koreans Who Cannot Afford to Live, or Die
As a growing number of South Koreans are dying alone with no relative willing to claim their remains and perform a final ritual, an activist and his organization help to fill the void. By Choe Sang-Hun.
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+20 +2
Boys in Zinc
‘I was trying to present a history of feelings, not the history of the war itself.’ An extract from Svetlana Alexiyevich's book on the USSR and Afghanistan.
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+33 +2
Worth the Risk?
For most patients, morcellation means less-invasive surgery. For others, it can be a death sentence. Alison Motluk investigates why two former Harvard doctors are trying to ban a procedure that left one of them riddled with cancer. By Alison Motluk.
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+9 +1
Biography of a Face
Patrick Hardison’s face was not always his own. Three months ago, it belonged to a young Brooklyn bike mechanic. By Steve Fishman.
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+24 +1
The Silicon Valley Suicides
Why are so many kids with bright prospects killing themselves in Palo Alto? By Hannah Rosin.
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+26 +2
Raising the Dead
At the bottom of the biggest underwater cave in the world, diving deeper than almost anyone had ever gone, Dave Shaw found the body of a young man who had disappeared ten years earlier. What happened after Shaw promised to go back is nearly unbelievable, unless you believe in ghosts. By Tim Zimmermann. (2005)
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+23 +4
“Why Him? Why Me?”
Two tragic collisions on the football field, separated by 26 years, have brought together a high school linebacker and a former college running back in search of the answer to a life-altering question. By Eli Saslow.
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