Our 9 Favorite Feature Stories This Week: Madewell, Planes Without Pilots And Anthony Bourdain

This week, Dan Nosowitz traces the history of the company — Madewell — that his great-grandfather founded, and that J. Crew now profits from. Read that and these other great stories from BuzzFeed and around the web.

1. Something Borrowed, Something Blue — BuzzFeed

Dan Nosowitz / BuzzFeed

In 1937, my great-grandfather started a workwear company in New England called Madewell. In 2006, 17 years after the last factory shut down, J.Crew relaunched a women’s clothing company with the same name and logo, based on a 50-year history in which it had no part. Read it at BuzzFeed.

2. The Human Factor — Vanity Fair

Photo illustration by Sean McCabe

A harrowing examination of the the 2009 crash of Air France Flight 447 by William Langewiesche — and a problem of modern aviation as a whole: "To put it briefly, automation has made it more and more unlikely that ordinary airline pilots will ever have to face a raw crisis in flight — but also more and more unlikely that they will be able to cope with such a crisis if one arises." Read it at Vanity Fair.

3. Meet the College Women Who Are Starting a Revolution Against Campus Sexual Assault — New York

nymag.com

Vanessa Grigoriadis catches up with Emma Sulkowicz, the Columbia student who's carrying her mattress around campus in protest of an alleged sexual assault she says the university failed to adequately punish. "A few years ago, an Ivy League student going public about her rape, telling the world her real name — let alone trying to attract attention by lugging around a mattress — would have been a rare bird." Read it at New York.

4. Anthony Bourdain Has Become the Future of Cable News and He Couldn't Care Less — Fast Company

Photo: courtesy of Travel Channel / Via fastcompany.com

Rob Brunner profiles the chef turned writer turned TV host who shows no signs yet of pumping the breaks: "At a time when he could simply coast, Bourdain seems as energized as ever." Read it at Fast Company.

5. How “Parenthood” Broke Down The Autism Awareness Barrier — BuzzFeed

AP Photo / NBC, Colleen Hayes

With showrunner Jason Katims’ raw storytelling and the passion and dedication of young actor Max Burkholder, the NBC drama has depicted a journey never before seen on network television, shedding light on life on the spectrum. Emily Orley reports. Read it at BuzzFeed.

6. The Woman Who Walked 10,000 Miles (No Exaggeration) in Three Years — New York Times Magazine

Sarah Marquis

Elizabeth Weil profiles the singular Sarah Marquis: "She is 42 and Swiss, and has spent three of the past four years walking about 10,000 miles by herself, from Siberia through the Gobi Desert, China, Laos and Thailand, then taking a cargo boat to Brisbane, Australia, and walking across that continent." Read it at The New York Times Magazine.

7. “Your Future Is Very Dark” — Slate

Photo by Bettman/Corbis

John T. Downey, a young CIA agent, was captured during the Korean War in the early fifties. As Andrew Burt describes, "He would remain there for more than 20 years, making him the longest held captive of war in American history." Read it at Slate.

8. The Body Electric — Outside

Photo: Mitch Dobrowner for Outside

Hundreds of people are struck by lightning each year. But Ferris Jabr reports on a strange truth: Medical experts still don't know much about what lightning does to the human body long after it first strikes. Read it at Outside.

9. Here’s Why The New York Times Television Coverage Is So Bad — BuzzFeed

Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed

Anne Helen Petersen explains how a decades-long blind spot culminated in the “Angry Black Woman.” Read it at BuzzFeed.

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