Let’s hear it from the pros
What’s it like being a housekeeper to the rich? How about a wildlife detective? Or America’s first full-time barbecue editor? In this week’s Sunday Reading Ritual, peek inside the lives of people with both ordinary and unusual job titles—all with extraordinary stories to tell.
I spent 2 years cleaning houses. What I saw makes me never want to be rich.
Stephanie Land, Vox
It’s hard to keep secrets from the person who scrubs your toilets and makes your beds. This first-person dispatch from a former housekeeper reveals the less-than-glamorous side of being wealthy.
Man of Letters
Stephen Meyers, CityLab
Delivering mail every day, rain or shine, can be grueling work, but there’s a softer side to the postal worker’s profession. Check out this heartwarming essay from a former mail carrier whose day-to-day interactions with customers changed the way he saw his city.
The Detective of Northern Oddities
Christopher Solomon, Outside
If a walrus full of ulcers washes up on the Alaskan coast or a sea otter turns up dead from histoplasmosis, Kathy Burek is on the case. This veterinary pathologist turned wildlife detective is witnessing the effects of climate change, one carcass at a time.
Confessions of a Fat Bastard
Daniel Vaughn, Texas Monthly
What does 48 hours in the life of a full-time barbecue editor look like? Texas Monthly’s Daniel Vaughn, the first of his kind, dishes up a taste of his meat-filled days on the road. Who knew there were so many ways to cook beef brisket? Just don’t ask about his cholesterol.
The World’s Most Extreme Sled Dog Patrol
Kara Segedin, BBC
Peer through the lens of a photographer working on a Danish dog sled unit in Greenland. This photo essay documents the blizzards, sunsets, and wildlife that make up the daily grind for this hardworking team of humans and canines.
Pocket Pro Tip
Do you use Pocket at work? It’s great for on-the-job research—you can tag articles right when you find them with words like “ideas,” “leadership,” and “trends.” Look for the little tag icon next to the word “saved” that appears after saving a story and click it to assign a related tag or two.
These tags will help you find content you’re looking for more quickly when you search for it. You can also navigate to the tags section in your Pocket to browse stories by their tags.
Better yet, if you upgrade to Pocket Premium, suggested tags will automatically pop up, saving you time and helping you remember which tags you commonly use—which keeps everything in your Pocket within reach.
