The Most Insightful Stories You Can't Miss This Week

Any elite athlete is under pressure to excel. The reigning three-time world gymnastics champion is under pressure to be inevitable. "For Biles, going to the Olympics is not so much about winning as it is not losing the gold." Read it at BuzzFeed News.

In the wake of the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, Hannah Giorgis attempts to put words to an inconceivable, routine pain. "To be black in America is to exist in haunting, mundane proximity to death at all moments." Read it at BuzzFeed Reader.

Ryan Gabrielson and Topher Sanders investigate the unreliable police practice of "field testing" and its consequences. "By our estimate...every year at least 100,000 people nationwide plead guilty to drug-possession charges that rely on field-test results as evidence. At that volume, even the most modest of error rates could produce thousands of wrongful convictions." Read it at ProPublica or The New York Times Magazine.

Meredith Talusan learns how LGBT nightlife staffers are coping in the wake of the Orlando shooting: in stolen, private moments among the queer families that love them. “I haven’t figured out what it all means yet. I just know I lost my friends.” Read it at BuzzFeed News.

In an election year rife with sexism, a late-night show with an angry, intrepid woman at its helm seemed destined to fail. Yet, as Alex Morris discovers, Full Frontal became a success because of Bee's brand of outrage, rather than despite it. Read it at Rolling Stone.

Natalie Shure chronicles the decades of societal and commercial factors that have kept the cup on the fringes of feminine hygiene. "If tampons and menstrual cups were both relatively whacky and scary ideas when they emerged in the 1930s, why did their respective 80-year trajectories pan out so differently?" Read it at Pacific Standard.

Chavie Lieber gets an inside look at the most ubiquitous candle brand in America. "If a Yankee candle has a label with a red rose on it, you know it's going to smell exactly like a red rose. It's remarkable." Read it at Racked.

Doree Shafrir explores how television’s obsession with tiny houses is lighting up conversations about class, race, and the politics of housing regulation. "As with anything real-estate-related in this country, even tiny houses come with their own set of privilege and class assumptions that end up dictating who gets to live in them." Read it at BuzzFeed Reader.