What to Book: “The numbers are staggering: over the past twenty years in Chicago, 14,033 people have been killed and another roughly 60,000 wounded by gunfire. What does that do to the spirit of individuals and community?” No one is better at answering that question and humanizing those numbers than Alex Kotlowitz. An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago.

+ What to Hear: Lately, I’ve been enjoying the smooth stylings of Julien Baker, a young singer, songwriter out of Memphis. And I’m quite sure you will too.

+ What to Read: “But as I noted at the time, the exploitation is rooted not in a single company but in an industry that operates with impunity, and punishing one corporation may simply benefit its rivals. That’s happening here. When Pornhub deleted videos, millions of outraged customers fled to its nemesis, XVideos, which has even fewer scruples. Pierre Woodman, a veteran European pornographer, told me that while I may have damaged Pornhub financially, for XVideos ‘you are Santa Claus.'” The NYT’s Nicholas Kristof wrote a piece that dramatically changed the game for the internet’s top adult site. But the traffic just moved. The whole internet industry needs to get involved. Why Do We Let Corporations Profit From Rape Videos?