Our 9 Favorite Feature Stories This Week: Brazilian Web Culture And A First Fire

This week for BuzzReads, Julie Ruvolo explains how Brazil became the social media capital of the world — and the effect this has on that society. Read that and these other great stories from around BuzzFeed and the web.

1. Why Brazil Is Actually Winning the Internet — BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed

As the World Cup and the 2016 Olympics bring unprecedented attention — and controversy — Brazil has been shaped by a sprawling, unique digital culture that may be more socially and politically active than any other country’s. Read it at BuzzFeed.

2. Baptism by Fire — New York Times

Photograph by Damon Winter for The New York Times

A stunning piece by N. R. Kleinfield that follows a rookie firefighter into his first fire. "Fires can end in tragedy. But occasionally, something extraordinary happens, something that every firefighter aspires to but few experience." Read it at the New York Times.

3. Found: The Elusive Man At The Heart Of The Hollywood Sex Abuse Scandal — BuzzFeed

buzzfeed.com

Digital pioneer Marc Collins-Rector lost millions before he vanished, believing that movie mogul David Geffen wanted to destroy him. Now he’s broke and alone — but the sex scandal he left behind continues to consume Hollywood. Read it at BuzzFeed.

4. Even The Most Progressive University In North America Doesn’t Know How To Handle Sexual Consent — BuzzFeed

Tucker Sherman / Flickr: tshermankb

When a tiny university in Canada was rocked by sexual assault allegations, frustrated students fought back by spreading rumors. Katie J.M. Baker tells the story of how everyone lost. Read it at BuzzFeed.

5. Moment to Moment — New Yorker

Lucas Jackson / Reuters

Nathan Heller profiles director Richard Linklater, shadowing him as he shoots the final scenes of Boyhood, a movie twelve years in the making. Read it at the New Yorker.

6. How Michael McDonald, The Affable Captain Of Yacht Rock, Lost His Voice — The Concourse

Via theconcourse.deadspin.com

Eric Harvey on the fallen troubadour: "Michael McDonald's voice is so unique that for more than 30 years, it has subsumed Michael McDonald the man, much in the way that his beard subsumed 50 percent of his face during his peak years in the 1970s and '80s." Read it at The Concourse.

7. The $124,421 Man — Matter

Illustration by Paul Windle for Matter

Chadwick Matlin discusses how he went into — and got out of — college debt. "I’m the outlier, the best-case scenario, the happy ending, and still I’m left without much in savings, since it all went to the accelerated repaying of the loans." Read it at Matter.

8. I Was Sure Freezing My Eggs Would Solve Everything — BuzzFeed

Illustration by Kelsey King for BuzzFeed

An honest and moving essay by Doree Shafrir. "I couldn’t tell you the exact moment I started thinking about whether I was going to be able to have kids, but it occurred sometime between February 2012, when the guy I’d been sort of dating for the past few months broke up with me, and May 2012, when I turned 35, because that is the age after which, as a single woman in New York City, everyone knows that no one will ever love you." Read it at BuzzFeed.

9. Prey — Hazlitt

Via randomhouse.ca

Kathleen Hale had just moved to Cambridge to begin college when she was sexually assaulted. In this powerful essay, she details how, in testifying in court, she gained the strength to go from prey to predator. Read it at Hazlitt.