David Beard
Mother Jones
Boston, MA, United States
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Past articles by David:
The Lessons of Recharge, a Column on Community Strength in the Face of Crisis
In a normal week, I’d be telling you the story of two epidemiologists who got married in a Boston hospital during their 12-hour shifts fighting COVID-19, or the thousands of readers who rallied to the side of an iconic independent bookstore derailed by coronavirus closures. (Those readers swamped Powell’s Books of Portland with enough online […] → Read More
A Top Restaurant Just Retooled to Feed Front-Line Workers Fighting COVID-19 –
Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. See more editions and sign up here. When the coronavirus struck Washington state hard, a restaurant once named the top destination in the world by National Geographic Traveler joined so many others in closing. Since then, the Herbfarm has retooled […] → Read More
The Scourge of Coronavirus Brings Out Bright Spots of Humanity –
Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. See more editions and sign up here. The woman in her 80s was holed up in her car for 45 minutes outside an Oregon supermarket, waiting for the right person. She cracked the window when Rebecca Mehra approached on March […] → Read More
As Coronavirus Grips the World, a 98-Year-Old Offers an Enduring Lesson –
Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. See more editions and sign up here. When Ronnie Backenstoe started selling Girl Scout cookies in the 1930s, they came in just three varieties and cost about 15 cents a box. At 98, Ronnie—a scout leader and volunteer—says she’s happiest […] → Read More
Homeless, Not Voiceless, a Thundering Choir’s Singers Stand Up –
Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. See more editions and sign up here. Choir members get a snack and $2 for their time. But they also get something else during their weekly rehearsals: reinforcement and respect. The Dallas Street Choir formed with the goal of busting stereotypes and […] → Read More
A 9-Year-Old Just Improved the World. What Did You Accomplish Before Your 10th Birthday?
How Bellen Woodard responded to the living legacy of racist art references and inspired kids across the country. → Read More
“Go Back to Your Country” Is Heard More and More. Here’s a Powerful Reply.
Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. See more editions and sign up here. “Go back to your country,” a Chicago high school teacher allegedly told a 17-year-old Mexican American student, who was born in the United States, after the student and her classmate refused to stand […] → Read More
Opponents Second-Guessed This All-Muslim Girls Basketball Team. Bad Move. –
Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. See more editions and sign up here. Their opponents are in gym shorts and jerseys on the court. The Salam Stars, in long-sleeve shirts, sweatpants, and hijabs, huddle and stretch before taking their positions. “Sometimes we see [our opponents] laughing” […] → Read More
Refusing to Lie, an Innocent Man Spent 22 Extra Years in Prison to Protect the Truth –
Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. See more editions and sign up here. He could have gotten out of prison years earlier. But he wouldn’t take a plea—because he didn’t do the crime. Last week, after 25 years behind bars and 10 more years outside of […] → Read More
Yes in My Backyard: A Radical Approach to Improving Homeless Encampments
Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. See more editions and sign up here. For a decade, she lived two doors down from a vacant lot that was overgrown and ignored. One day in August, Stefani Echeverría-Fenn pushed through a hole in the chain-link fence and started […] → Read More
Saved at sea, a family of nurses reunite four decades later with their rescuers.
Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. See more editions and sign up here. In 1981, the USS John Young spotted a motorless fishing boat filled with people in the South China Sea—and saved their lives. They were without food, without water. That rescue was the first […] → Read More
You Don’t Need an Olympic Medal to Stand Up for Human Rights, but How’s This for a Protest? –
Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. See more editions and sign up here. They told her where to go, what to wear, how to act, what to say. Iran’s only female Olympic medalist has said enough is enough: She’s defected in protest. “My troubled spirit does […] → Read More
The Nazis Couldn’t Destroy This Joyful Concerto –
Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. See more editions and sign up here. When the Nazis were advancing toward his home, composer Ludomir Różycki stuffed the pages of his violin concerto in a suitcase and buried it in his yard in Warsaw, Poland, before fleeing. His […] → Read More
A Group of Students Were Never Taught About Their Voting Rights—So They’re Suing –
Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. See more editions and sign up here. What does the right to vote entail exactly? What is the separation of powers guaranteed in the Constitution? At a time of impeachment, escalating climate change, and justified fears of foreign interference and […] → Read More
One of Spain’s Fastest Runners Has an Urgent Message
Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. See more editions and sign up here. At 14, Kone Yossodjo lost his father, and his mom said she couldn’t take care of him. He made his way from Ivory Coast to Morocco, then to Spain, where, at 19, Yossodjo […] → Read More
He Spent Every Day Handing Out a Free Newspaper. When the Paper Shut Down, His Community Stepped Up. –
Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. See more editions and sign up here. For five years, Hassan Nezhadessivandi had stood in the same spot handing out free newspapers for several hours every morning in the snow, rain, and heat. He wished commuters good morning and high-fived […] → Read More
R.E.M. Released a New Song and Every Dollar Is Going to Benefit the Bahamas
Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. See more editions and sign up here. To Virginia’s historically black Hampton University, it was the right thing to do. To R.E.M., it was a gesture to help a nation it loved. To chef José Andrés, a US citizen since […] → Read More
A Stranger’s Snap Judgment Prompted Sonia Sotomayor to Help Others –
Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. See more editions and sign up here. Diagnosed with diabetes in her youth, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was injecting herself with insulin in a restaurant restroom before a meal when another customer spotted her there. Sotomayor later heard that […] → Read More
Many 2nd Graders Might Have Ignored a Troubled Classmate. This One Didn’t. –
Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. See more editions and sign up here. Christian Moore looked at an 8-year-old classmate crying in a corner. It was the start of the school year in Wichita, Kansas. Christian wanted to help the second grader, Conner Crites, who has […] → Read More
A 45-Year-Old Photo of Bruce Springsteen Just Changed One Man’s Life –
A music fan captured a key moment in rock history. → Read More