The Most Unnerving Stories You Can't Miss This Week

This medical mystery — a byproduct of common nasal surgery — has stumped many doctors and scientists, some of whom suspect the suffocating condition may just be imaginary. But that isn't making the people who feel suicidal over its horrific symptoms feel any better. Read it at BuzzFeed News.

Chicago police officer Gil Sierra shot three black men in six months and stayed on the force. Albert Samaha discovers how the city with more police shootings than any other in America circles its wagons. “I said to him: I wonder, is this the same officer that did this to my son?” Read it at BuzzFeed News.

Pegged to the one year anniversary of The Argonauts, author Maggie Nelson takes Hilton Als through the writing and relationship that led to her breakthrough book. "In all of her books, Nelson picks at the underbelly of certainty and finds scabs—the white-male-patriarchy scab, the smug-female-thinker scab, the academic scab." Read it at The New Yorker.

It’s far easier to join ISIS than to leave. Members of a hidden community of ISIS defectors tell Mike Giglio and Munzer al-Awad how they were pulled into the grip of extremism — and their struggle to escape. “People can join ISIS, but nobody can defect." Read it at BuzzFeed News.

Anna Wiener recounts her time in the world of Silicon Valley start-ups. "The

posters say things like 'Life is short: build stuff that matters' and 'Innovate

or die.' I am dead." Read it at n+1.

In 1993, 14-year-old Adam Gray confessed to, and was later convicted of, setting a fire that killed two people in Chicago. But thanks to disproven arson-investigation techniques and recanted testimonies, reports Mike Hayes, he may now have a chance to go free. Read it at BuzzFeed News.

Who patrols what you can say online? Catherine Buni and Soraya Chemaly recount moderation's "murky history" and examine the human decisions that guide the web. "There are inherent difficulties doing this kind of work because the material is so traumatic." Read it at The Verge.

In viral videos, the real-life pain of black people is repurposed into fun, catchy songs for popular consumption. Niela Orr asks: at what cost? "Black viral interviewees hardly had any time to grieve before their feelings were repurposed for the zeitgeist." Read it at BuzzFeed Reader.

Amos Barshad profiles Metro Boomin, who at just 22 years old is one of hip-hop's most in-demand producers. “My mom wanted to give me a name where, no matter what I wanted to do, I’d be able to do it. An astronaut. President. Whatever." Read it at The Fader.