The real ‘murders only’ building, and more: the week in narrated articles

Listen this weekend to a collection of well-told articles from across The New York Times, read aloud by the reporters who wrote them.

Fans of the Hulu series “Only Murders in the Building”, which returned for its second season this week, know the building in the middle of the drama as the Arconia. There will be an unlikely trio of residents, played by Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez, amateur detectives with a podcast.

But the Renaissance-style apartment building, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, is actually called the Belnord, and it’s been making headlines for more than a century.

In 1969, when abortion was illegal in Illinois, an underground operation began in Chicago. Officially called the Abortion Counseling Service of Women’s Liberation, it became known as the Jane Collective because women seeking abortions were told to call a number and “ask for Jane.”

While Times critic Amanda Hess watched “The Janes,” an HBO documentary about the network, she was struck by the drive of the story. As the Janes evade the church, the Mafia and the police to facilitate about 11,000 secret abortions, they emerge from anonymity as the stars of a new genre: the abortion caper.

While Amanda waited for the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decided last week she was compulsively looking up such stories. She watched the French film “Happening” which follows a student seeking an illegal abortion in France in 1963, and “Oh God, a Show About Abortion,” the comedian Alison Leiby’s one-woman show about ending a pregnancy at Planned Parenthood at age 35.

What is the story of an abortion that is free from justification?

Written and narrated by Alisha Haridasani Gupta

Reproductive health policies have been largely dictated by men in positions of power, which has created a perception that men speak out about abortion – and that men and women have diametrically opposed views on the issue. In fact, public opinion on abortion is more likely to divide along party lines rather than gender.

An estimated one in five men in the United States had a partner whose pregnancy ended in abortion, according to a recent analysis of data between 2015 and 2017 from the National Survey of Family Growth.

On June 24, the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, and the procedure is already restricted or illegal in more than 20 states. In light of the changing landscape, The Times has asked men who have struggled with abortion in their own lives to share their stories. Hundreds of respondents revealed a range of emotional responses, including fear and frustration, happiness and hopelessness.

Written and narrated by Michael Corker

Assaults on stores are on the rise in America. During the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, stores became tinderboxes in a society weakened by restrictions, protests and mask mandates.

According to a New York Times analysis of FBI data, the number of assaults in many retail businesses has increased at a faster pace than the national average.

From 2018 to 2020, assaults by law enforcement agencies were reported to the FBI rose 42 percent overall; they increased 63 percent in grocery stores and 75 percent in convenience stores.

Many workers say that stress persists even as pandemic stress decreases, and that they need more protection.

Written and narrated by Jennifer Zalai

The upheaval of the last few years has been so relentless that it can be hard to remember how strange the partnership was: Donald J. Trump and social conservatives, a strange couple for centuries.

As legal historian Mary Ziegler writes in “Dollars for Life,” the beginning of the 2016 election cycle had the evangelicals extremely worried. Hillary Clinton – whose possible presidency saw them as “catastrophic” – was on what Ziegler calls “probably the most pro-choice platform in history.” Could an “infectious real estate magnate” really turn out to be “the savior they were looking for”?

Kind of, writes Ziegler, who has written several books on the history of abortion in the United States. But her argument in “Dollars for Life” is mostly the other way around – that the anti-abortion movement has laid the groundwork for a candidate like Trump over the decades.

The Times’ storytelling articles are made by Tally Abecassis, Parin Behrooz, Anna Diamond, Sarah Diamond, Jack D’Isidoro, Aaron Esposito, Dan Farrell, Elena Hecht, Adrienne Hurst, Elisheba Ittoop, Emma Kehlbeck, Marion Lozano, Tanya Pérez, Krish Seenivasan, Margaret H. Willison, Kate Winslett, John Woo and Tiana Young. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Ryan Wegner, Julia Simon and Desiree Ibekwe.