9 Feature Stories You Can't Miss This Week: New Hollywood And The Old West

Her breakthrough performance in Room has everyone talking about an Oscar and signals the end of her relative anonymity. Can Brie Larson survive becoming the next Jennifer Lawrence without losing her balance? Read it at BuzzFeed News.

San Francisco's Shrimp Boy used to be a gang boss, but claims he gave up the underworld years ago. Now, details Elizabeth Weil, he's back on trial, for crimes he says he didn't commit. ‘‘I know I caused the trouble. I would do anything to fix it.’’ Read it at the New York Times Magazine.

In this interactive feature, Ryan Sutton reveals that some of New York's top restaurants are eliminating tipping, and breaks down how this change will revolutionize the hospitality industry. "I’d see nights where waiters were crying because somebody from Europe would walk out without leaving a tip." Read it at Eater.

The story of the Wild West’s most infamous outlaw may seem straightforward, explains Tim Stelloh, but the truth is anything but. Two small-town sheriffs, a passionate historian, and, now, a succession of TV specials raise the question: Who owns history? Read it at BuzzFeed News.

Natalie Shure examines the Shoshone heroine who, since aiding Lewis and Clark on their famed 19th-century expedition across the West, has become a symbol for everything from Manifest Destiny to women’s rights to American diversity. Does it matter that we don’t seem to know that much about her? Read it at BuzzFeed News.

Few figures exemplify the West, and Americanness, more than John Wayne, writes Anne Helen Petersen. How does the resilience of his image — and the thinly veiled bigotry, xenophobia, and sexism that structure it — point to the darkness at the heart of the Western myth? Read it at BuzzFeed News.

Noah Pisner investigates an overlooked medical crisis in the United States: amputations brought on by preventable illnesses like peripheral arterial disease and diabetes. The effects are tragic and disproportionate; black Americans are up to four times as likely as other racial groups to lose a leg. "Amputation due to trauma is misfortune, but due to PAD is blameworthy negligence." Read it at The Morning News.

What's it like being the world's biggest — and, perhaps, most deliberately branded — pop star? Ask Chuck Klosterman, who spends time with the musician and tries to crack what makes her tick. "If there was a machine that built humans out of positive millennial stereotypes, Swift would be its utopian creation." Read it at GQ.