Annie Londonderry was before her time: free-thinking, daring, entrepreneurial, Annie was cursed with an anachronistic spirit; in the Victorian Age, she was a remarkable anomaly. In 1895, Annie Londonderry became the first woman to bicycle around the globe. In 1947, she died in obscurity. Today on Narrative.ly, Amanda Lin Costa shares this extraordinary woman’s story. Whether [...]

Don’t even waste time reading my introduction to “Women Are Bitches”; just go ahead and start Kma Sullivan’s brave and (unfortunately) too real Rumpus essay on the casual misogyny that runs rampant in literary circles and the mythical “nice guy.”

Facebook friends in the triple digits, thousands of followers on Tumblr, strangers retweeting strangers with regularity — we live in a time of hyperconnectedness. In The New Inquiry, Claire Evans explains how the Listserve, an e-mail lottery that is like Postsecret meets Chatroulette, is bringing online strangers together in an era oversaturated with friends. In [...]

Ten weeks after moving to a new home in Maine, Mira Ptacin discovered that she was pregnant. She was overjoyed but there was just one problem: Ptacin and her husband couldn’t afford private health insurance and didn’t qualify for state-funded insurance; in short, they were uninsured.

Okay, yes: for the second time this month, the “Read of the Day” is a “Watch of the Day”; but it’s Monday and my eyes feel like they are about to fall out of my skull and the only thing I want to be reading right now is a menu’s margarita options. I’m sure you can relate. Also like last time, this video is going to make you feel pretty angry, but for a whole different slew of reasons.

Despite the brief but vigorous trial of Anne Hathaway (spoiler: she was found guilty of being Anne Hathaway), Gwyneth Paltrow remains the object of the Internet’s fascination and derision. In the latest Paltwoe news, NY Mag‘s Rebecca Harrington tries to eat according to Gwen’s latest cookbook, It’s All Good. As it turns out, living the GOOP good life isn’t easy.

So today’s “Read of the Day is actually more of a “Watch of the Day” and warning: it is terrible.

Academia isn’t for everyone; in The New Inquiry, Keguro Macharia explains how for some, academia is exhausting, unhealthy, and unlivable.

Sodeto is an isolated farming village in the Alberuela de Tubo province in Spain. The town’s seventy households were once struggling to make ends meet, victims of Spain’s severe economic downturn and a vicious drought; then, a few days before Christmas 2011, Sodeto won the largest lottery in the history of Spain: $950 million. Suddenly, quiet and tiny Sodeto became known as the luckiest village in the world.

Get your tissues out because this one is a doozy. Poet Jon Sands’ essay for The Millions is an unflinching look at what it means to love, to be loved, to inherit, and to grow; it is bound to make you feel a lot of feels, some of which you probably haven’t felt in a bit.