The Week’s Best Longreads: The Daily Beast Picks for Aug. 18, 2012

Obama vs. Poverty
Paul Tough, The New York Times Magazine

As a young community organizer in Chicago, Barack Obama concluded that to make a real difference, he needed to gain power. But did he actually make a difference?

The Second Coming Christ
Ted Olsen and Ken Smith, Christianity Today

David Jang has become an increasingly influential figure in Asian and now American evangelicalism. He and his followers have founded media outlets and a Christian college. But is he telling his followers he’s Christ?

Raging Bulls
Jerry Adler, Wired

Wall Street used to bet on companies that build things. Now it just bets on technologies that make faster and faster trades.

Weather Gone Wild
Peter Miller, National Geographic

Rains that are almost biblical, heat waves that don’t end, tornadoes that strike in savage swarms—there’s been a change in the weather lately. What’s going on?

Prog Spring
David Weigel, Slate

Before it was a joke, prog was the future of rock and roll. The first part of a series on prog rock’s rise and fall.

For more great longreads, visit our friends at Longreads.com.