9 Feature Stories You Can't Miss This Week: Witches, Warnings, And Wanderers

This week for BuzzFeed News, Donovan X. Ramsey discovers how a historically black college is struggling to rebuild. Read that and these other great stories from BuzzFeed and around the web.

1. The Rise, Fall, and Improbable Comeback of Morris Brown College — BuzzFeed News

Photograph by Jarrett Christian for BuzzFeed News

The embattled, groundbreaking Atlanta college — one of the few HBCUs with black founders — is hoping to go from cautionary tale to redemption story. "All that’s missing is students." Read it at BuzzFeed News.

2. They Burn Witches Here — Highline

Photograph by Robert Weber for Highline

Kent Russell travels deep into the Highlands of Papa New Guinea, where witch hunts are still common. "In PNG...the tradition of witch hunting has not simply persisted in the face of Western intervention—it has become much worse. The ritual is warping, the violence is metastasizing." Read it at Highline.

3. The Outcast — Texas Monthly

Photograph by Leann Mueller for Texas Monthly

Michael Hall meets Greg Torti, a man with a troubled past who has spent his life hating sex offenders. How, then, did he end up one? Read it at Texas Monthly.

4. When You're a Refugee and Your Husband Beats You, You're Basically on Your Own — BuzzFeed News

Jens Meyer / AP

She escaped from Syria, only to be abused by her husband in a refugee center in Germany. Jina Moore recounts one woman’s struggle to get help, and the cracks it exposes in an overwhelmed refugee system. Read it at BuzzFeed News.

5. Why Are Sports Bras so Terrible? — Racked

Jenny White/Brittany Holloway-Brown

Rose Evelyth dives deep into the the science — and dilemmas — behind creating better bras for women to exercise in. "Sports bras aren't just a piece of sports equipment...They're cultural objects, they're fashion objects, and as such they're laden with all kinds of baggage about how a woman is supposed to look." Read it at Racked.

6. The Movie That Taught a Generation of Misfits to Let Their Freak Flags Fly — BuzzFeed News

Photo illustration by Jared Harrell / BuzzFeed News; Photos: Courtesy IFC Films; Everett Collection (4)

The 2003 movie musical Camp showed theater geeks how to own their outcast status. Director and writer Todd Graff, the cast, and Stephen Sondheim tell Louis Peitzman how the film no one wanted to make turned into a queer cult classic. Read it at BuzzFeed News.

7. The Deputy Who Disappeared — Los Angeles

Photograph by Spencer Lowell for Los Angeles

Claire Martin chronicles the fruitless searches for Jon Aujay, an LA deputy who went for a desert run nearly two decades ago and never came back. "It’s not often that a member of law enforcement vaporizes, or that the circumstances surrounding his case create divisions and disagreements among people who’ve spent their careers honing their ability to remain objective in their work." Read it at Los Angeles.

8. Researchers Seek to End Violent Hazing at Historically Black Colleges — BuzzFeed News

David Goldman / AP Photo

For decades, both scholars and members have wondered why hazing seems to be more violent within black student groups than white ones, but no one knows exactly why. Katie J.M. Baker finds out how a tragic death at a prominent HBCU might help push that research forward. Read it at BuzzFeed News.

9. A Short History of the Strange Science of Radionics — Popular Mechanics

Illustration by Sally Cantirino for Popular Mechanics

Andy Wright traces the weird history of radionics machines: devices that take your thoughts and amplify them to the universe. Most scientists have dismissed them. So why are some people still committed to believing they work?Read it at Popular Mechanics.

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