Reported out
I have been swamped with reporting and writing this week, working on a political news article that will come out next week. There’s something liberating about throwing yourself towards a fast deadline, in the way that it doesn’t allow for a lot of second guessing or painful rumination on the inevitable gap between the perfect piece in your head and the disappointing draft that’s coming out on the page. But I also find political stories to be one of the hardest parts of my job. I’ve never really thought of myself as a natural reporter the way I think of myself as a natural writer. I’ve learned to do it, of course, and I think I do it pretty well, but I will always prefer a writing challenge (like explaining something really technical, or developing the perfect narrative structure) to a reporting challenge (like digging up information and confronting powerful people with it). And political stories tend to be much harder to report than to write. So yeah, I’m tired. And since this whole endeavor is supposed to be low stress, I’m going straight to the recommendations this week..
Recommendations
“Who Owns the Rights to Mexico’s Wonder Plant?” Living in Mexico, it’s impossible not to be obsessed with corn. The whole story, from the world’s most unlikely and drawn out domestication saga to the worldwide diet domination, is endlessly fascinating. My friend Martha Pskowski reported on one important corner of the story—the extraordinary biological abilities of one of Mexico’s native corn varieties, and if there’s a way to bring them to the rest of the world while still benefitting the Indigenous farmers who’ve grown it for generations.
“This Rise of the Spice Girls Generation.” Who wouldn’t want to read bonafide genius Caity Weaver’s spot-on, hilarious, and moving analysis of their own micro-generation? Also includes the priceless, worldview-tilting tidbit that Nelson Mandela described a 1997 meeting with the Spice Girls as “one of the greatest moments in my life.”
Las dos Fridas. Last week’s This American Life dove into the saga of Frida Sofia, the little girl who was allegedly trapped in a collapsed school after the 2017 earthquake in Mexico City and also one of the most bizarre media spectacles I have ever witnessed in real time. There’s better news about the earthquake’s other famous Frida—Frida the rescue dog. (You may remember her goggles.) She recently retired from search and rescue service, after a ceremony in which high-ranking members of Mexico’s Navy formally replaced her disaster gear with a chew toy. In her ten years on the job, she saved the lives of 12 people in several countries.