#112: The College Try

There are two ways to declare bankruptcy: Chapter 7 is more expensive up front and requires you to liquidate your possessions. Chapter 13 forgoes lawyer’s fees and allows you to keep your possessions — as long as you make payments for five years. In much of the South, if you’re white, your lawyer suggests Chapter 7, and if you’re Black, your lawyer encourages Chapter 13. This excellent piece explains why, for many poor African Americans, this system of bankruptcy-on-credit does nothing to stop the cycle of poverty. ⏳⏳

Big food companies are making poor people fat. This is happening not just in America but all over the world. This disheartening piece details how Nestlé (“Good Food, Good Life”) has infiltrated Brazil, employing women, Avon Lady-style, to travel door to door, peddling high-calorie, sugary products. For many years, too many Brazilians didn’t have enough food to eat. Now the problem is different: There’s plenty to eat, but it’s mostly junk. As a result, obesity, diabetes, and other health problems have skyrocketed. Meanwhile, Nestlé says that people need to make better choices. ⏳⏳

There are librarians, and then there are archivists. This profile of Thomas Lannon, archivist at the New York Public Library, is a fascinating look into the mind of a person who spends his life taking care of rare documents. Mr. Lannon knows secrets about New York, but he keeps them tucked away in folders, hoping one day a patron will swing by to make a discovery. Instead of wearing gloves, Mr. Lannon prefers to touch the documents with his fingers — in order to understand their fragility. What frustrates Mr. Lannon is the explosion of paper. Though it means that his job is secure, it also means that he gets less time to peruse. His job is to sort, organize, “refolder.” ⏳