9 Longform Stories We're Reading This Week: David Miranda And A Dream Boat

He's been called a hero, a terrorist, and a pack mule. This week for BuzzReads, Natasha Vargas-Cooper profiles Glenn Greenwald's misunderstood husband, David Miranda. Read that and these other great stories from around BuzzFeed and the web.

1. David Miranda is Nobody's Errand Boy — BuzzReads

Photograph by Jimmy Chalk for BuzzFeed

When Glenn Greenwald’s 28-year-old Brazilian partner was detained in London this summer while transporting documents related to the bombshell Edward Snowden story, many assumed he was unfairly roped into a situation he didn’t understand. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Read it at BuzzReads.

2. Too Much of Too Little — The Washington Post

Michael S. Williamson for The Washington Post

Eli Saslow reports from McAllen, Texas, one of the poorest and most food stamp-reliant parts of the country — and also one of the most obese. What can be done when what little that is available to eat is killing people? Read it at The Washington Post.

3. Locked in the Cabinet — Politico Magazine

Jesse Lenz for Read it at Politico

Glenn Thrush looks critically at the ineffectual presidential Cabinet: "The staffers who rule Obama’s West Wing often treat his Cabinet as a nuisance: At the top of the pecking order are the celebrity power players, like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to be warily managed; at the bottom, what they see as a bunch of well-intentioned political naifs only a lip-slip away from derailing the president’s agenda." Read it at Politico Magazine.

4. I Was Drugged by a Stranger — BuzzReads

Justine Zwiebel for BuzzFeed

"One night at a music festival, someone put something in my drink. What happened next was humiliating and taught me how common these incidents are, and how easy — and wrong — it is to blame the victim." Read it at BuzzReads.

5. The Vatican's Secret Gay Life — Vanity Fair

Andrew Milligan/WPA Pool / Getty Images / Via vanityfair.com

Much has been written about the supposedly powerful "gay lobby" in Rome. Michael Joseph Gross travels there to try to separate myth from reality. Read it at Vanity Fair.

6. The Dream Boat — New York Times Magazine

Joel Van Houdt for The New York Times Magazine

"Our destination was an Australian territory, more than 200 miles across the Indian Ocean, called Christmas Island. If the weather is amenable, if the boat holds up, the trip typically lasts three days. Often, however, the weather is tempestuous, and the boat sinks. Over the past decade, it is believed that more than a thousand asylum seekers have drowned." Read it at New York Times Magazine.

7. Voyage of No Return — The Ascender

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In 2023, four civilians plan to leave earth and embark on the long journey to Mars. Are they serious? Is there a chance they'll possibly succeed? Read it in the debut issue of The Ascender.

8. Why Did the Schaibles Let Their Children Die? — Philadelphia Magazine

Photo by Jonathan Barkat for Philadelphia Magazine

"They may be dead because their parents practice a brand of Christianity that seems straight out of the Dark Ages. The D.A., however justified in charging them with murder, is rubbing up against the American founding principle of religious freedom. It is a case that may, in fact, threaten the very existence of their church." Read it at Philadelphia Magazine.

9. What Happened at Brian Holloway's House? — Grantland

Aaron Dana for Grantland

The story broke in late August: a former NFL player's vacant second home was trashed — allegedly — by 300 teenagers, whom he vowed to "save" via a vague, and much publicized social media campaign. Jay Caspian Kang uncovers the complicated man behind the deceptively simple story. Read it at Grantland.