Hi 👋

Happy new year! 🎉 

Welcome back to The Lazy Reader, where we curate the best longform journalism from across the Internet! ✨

I hope you all had a restful holiday break because we’re jumping straight into it this year. There are some truly long longreads in this edition, and I’d say that on balance, the picks this week are on the heavier side.

Here’s a quick peek:

• A man who suffered through years of chemo that he apparently didn’t need.

• A girl who decided to take her own life—and then realized she wanted to live.

• Silicon Valley tech bros who want to create their own society.

See? Heavy.

In other news: I have a lot of changes planned for this year, but I’d of course like to hear your thoughts on them as I roll them out. No sense in committing to something new if my community isn’t on-board with it.

So you can expect to see a lot of surveys and/or calls for responses in the coming months. And I’d really, really appreciate it if you could engage in those when they happen. I want to continue to make TLR better, and your honest feedback will be instrumental for that.

Speaking of changes, and speaking of feedback: I’m sure you’ve noticed that we now have an actual header image! It’s not just that moving banner that we always use. I was convinced that having a photo there would be better for the newsletter (y’know, for engagement and readability and whatnot), but now I’m not so sure…

So what do you think? Do you like images better? Or should I stick with our usual TLR banner? Would love to hear your thoughts; feel free to reply to this email to let me know. OR there’s a feedback form at the very bottom of this email. You can fill that up, too.

Thanks so much!

Happy reading and see you again next Monday!

Story in Spotlight

There’s a reason many people consider Skip Hollandsworth a pillar of longform journalism.

Full disclosure: I’m a pretty young person of the Media. So I was never really there to experience Skip’s hey-day first-hand. But even just looking back on it—through stories like these—it’s extremely clear how much of a force of nature he was. And still is, I’m sure.

This story was written in 1995. Yeah almost 20 years ago. And yet it remains, in my opinion, one of the best True Crime longform stories of all time. It’s a huge help, too, that this is probably one of the most horrific crimes I’ve ever read about. And it’s not even as gorey as the other notable True Crime contenders.

In this story, Skip interviews a woman who was alleged to have smothered her kids to the point of suffocation, before pulling back and performing CPR on them and calling paramedics. The case technically goes unsolved in the story, but I have to say, the evidence against Tanya Reid is pretty convincing.

The problem, as Skip details toward the end of the story, is that there’s virtually no way to prove Reid's motives. She’s been suspected of having Munchausen syndrome by proxy, which is when a parent fakes their child’s injury or disease or disability—with the objective of gaining attention from others. (Exactly like how the Gypsy Rose case went down.)

Muchausen and its proxy syndrome have both been classified as psychological disorders, but both have also been extremely difficult to substantiate in that it’s nearly impossible to prove that someone is doing something for attention. Without that piece of the puzzle, I suspect that Reid will always have some valid claim to innocence.

Still, the odds are stacked heavy against her. Especially since the incidents have completely stopped happening once the children were taken out of her care.

Skip is incredible here. He is both kind and sensitive to all parties involved, but also relentless in his questioning and pursuit of the truth. He also doesn’t sensationalize the crimes and their terrifying violence and heartlessness to up the narrative, which by today’s standards, already puts this leagues ahead of most other True Crime stories.

Long. And can get very difficult to read through. I’d caution care here, especially if you have kids in your life that you love dearly. Probably commit 1 hour at the very least. 

The Longform List

🕵🏻‍♀️ The Body in Room 348 | Vanity Fair, $

Possibly one of the best True Crime stories I’ve ever read.

And yes I know I literally just said that a few sentences ago—but maybe that just means that I’ve been doing a good job at picking incredible True Crime stories to put on these lists?

But really, though: This one from Mark Bowden reads exceptionally like a mystery short story; the setting, the characters, the circumstances—they all feel very Holmes-esque. The crime itself, especially, feels very much like it came out of the mind of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie. If you’ve ever enjoyed any of their work, you’re going to love this story.

All of that is to the massive credit of the writer, who I can only assume has devoured thousands of pages of court records and transcripts—supplemented by his own legwork—to be able to put this level of detail onto the page. Impressive work by Bowden here.

Very, very long. Probably 1 hour or so.

🩺 “I Thought He Was Helping Me”: Patient Endured 9 Years of Chemotherapy for Cancer He Never Had | ProPublica, Free

I swear I don’t actively try to put rage-inducing stories on these lists. It just happens. But also maybe it’s because we live in an inherently infuriating world?

In any case, following the shooting sh*thshow from last year, the U.S. healthcare system has been on my mind a lot. (I mean, much more than usual. I do write about it on a daily basis, so there’s that). This story came at a very opportune time for me and really served to highlight many of the core problems of America’s medical enterprise.

In this investigation, ProPublica exposes a very egregious case of medical malpractice by a Montana doctor. Or at least, alleged malpractice, as the case has yet to be resolved in a court of law. The doctor, who quickly became beloved by colleagues and the community, was apparently grossly overtreating patients. The victim that ProPublica follows, for instance, was diagnosed with a cancer that he didn’t have and was subjected to more than a decade of chemotherapy that he didn’t need.

The case is ongoing, and so the fallout has yet to happen. But I suspect that it will be epic when (not if) it comes.

Not too long. Maybe 30 minutes? Shorter if you can stay focused.

🪬 The Hades Environment | Truly*Adventurous (Medium), Free

You know how they say that truth is stranger than fiction?

I always found that to be a bit… cheesy. Patronizing? Clichéd? Then once in a while stories like these come along and remind you that yeah, truth is stranger than fiction.

This story is about astral projection, which I was shocked to learn was an actual and genuine avenue of spycraft during the Cold War. Apparently, both Soviet and U.S. militaries were convinced that people could actually send their souls out of their bodies and across the astral plane, landing anywhere on the planet that they so wished. If that were true, that would make for the best espionage tactic ever.

And now you all know that I’m as skeptical as they come. But I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t at least a tiny bit intrigued. Because what if we could actually do that. What if there was a legitimate scientific explanation for these psychic, out-of-body, astral experiences—and we just haven’t figured it out yet?

And you know what truly convinces me that there possibly probably likely might be a kernel of truth here? The media blackout. Why try so hard and do so much to suppress the news? Is there something being hidden?

Long but very gripping. Couldn’t look away from my phone. I finished this in 20 minutes.

💉 How a Young Dutch Woman’s Life Began When She Was Allowed to Die | The Guardian, Free

I’ll concede: A huge part of why I even gave this article the time of day is because of its headline. What a title. Really captures you, no?

But that’s not to say that the story itself disappoints. Quite the opposite, actually. This story, about euthanasia, poses some very difficult questions to the gradually growing right-to-die movement. If you’ve been a long-time reader, you likely know that I am of the belief that people should have agency over their own mortality and death—but I’ll admit that this story shook that conviction a bit.

Here’s this girl who has, demonstrably, been subjected to life’s worst traumas and was given the go-ahead by the state’s top experts to take her own life. But then she pulled back. Only to do it all again. And then pull back again. Maybe choosing death isn’t as peaceful and easy as I imagine it to be.

Also: Good on The Netherlands for being so in-tune with the nuances of mental health care. So much so that they’ve built safeguards and systems for these types of last-minute indecision from people approved for euthanasia.

Not too long. But can be very thought-provoking. Even slightly triggering. I’d recommend care if you decide to read this. And allot 45 minutes at least, to give yourself time to step away and breathe if you need it.

🛳️ They Missed Their Cruise Ship. That Was Only The Beginning. | Curbed, $

I went into this story fully expecting to dislike the characters—the people who missed their cruise.

And to a certain degree, I was right. I don’t understand the compulsion to go on cruises, so I find it really difficult to empathize with people who do. Plus I’ve been struck by the idea that cruises are for rich old folk who have too much money that they don’t know what to do with it.

But by the end of this story, I was actively rooting for this group of people. Which I guess is a testament to how extreme their ordeal was and how well the entire thing was written up.

Long, but really gripping. Strongly character-driven, which isn’t all that common for longform stories. Probably 50 minutes.

🏺 The British Museum’s Blockbuster Scandals | The New Yorker, $

This story is built off a rich irony. The British Museum is populated by some of the world’s most prized pieces of art, which were stolen from its colonial exploits from the past, and which it refuses to return.

Then, suddenly, a senior curator was discovered to have stolen several valuable pieces, which were stored, uncatalogued and forgotten, in some drawer somewhere. Sort of like Robin Hood, but without the actual social justice part.

Anyway, I found that slant of this story to be extra sweet. Like some long-overdue just desserts had been served. I was so emotionally taken by how arrogant many of the museum’s proponents are (most of whom are really influential people in Britain), insisting that keeping stolen pieces of art—pieces of another country’s history, really—is, for whatever reason, important. For some cultural reason or other. The reasoning doesn’t make sense to me.

Very long. But this also qualified as a rage read for me, so it didn’t take too much for me to finish it. Maybe 40 minutes?

🍉 A Massive Database of Evidence, Compiled by a Historian, Documents Israel's War Crimes in Gaza | Haaretz, Free

History won’t look kindly on us in a few decades. There are multiple genocides going on right now and we’re stuck splitting hairs, debating what the word means and not what a life is worth.

This story follows an Israeli historian who compiled what is essentially the world’s largest database of proof of genocide and war crimes in Gaza. The article dedicates a lot of time and space to qualify that the evidence is susbtantiated to the very best of the historian’s ability. But when that fails, he is pushed to make moral choices, which he says he sticks by. That’s nothing short of admirable.

When I first got into journalism, one of the things that really attracted me to the practice was the idea that reporting the news is essentially reporting history in real-time. Documenting history as it happens, as one of my mentors used to say. But if you ask me, the Media has been an utter failure at that in recent years. And it’s fallen on actual trained historians to pick up our slack. Really regretful.

Long but very important. Can also get difficult to read. I’d set aside 45 to 55 minutes.

🛶 The First First Responders | Hakai Magazine, Free

I really adore Hakai for the work that it does in highlighting the social and human domains of coastal and marine science. In that sense, this story is even more impressive to me because it shines a light directly on Indigenous history in Canada—a country that, by the way, has recently been discovered to have a horrific track-record of abuse against its Native population.

Good on the local authorities of British Columbia, too, because their initiative of involving Native coastal communities in their first response programs (for naval accidents) appears to be cognizant and sensitive of this history. And it also recognizes the agency and expertise of these communities: Instead of forcing onto them some top-down protocol for rescue, the state instead plays a more supportive and training role.

Really good science writing from Hakai, as usual. And if you haven’t heard, they’ll be joining bioGraphic starting this year.

Not too long, but I concede that it can get a bit dragging. Maybeee 30 to 40 minutes?

🛠️ Worst New Trend of 2024: Techno-Colonialism and the Network State Movement | Gizmodo, Free

This is an interesting article. I had this vague awareness that tech bros were trying to carve out their own separate sphere of reality—with its own set of laws and icons and symbols and regulations and proponents—but I never thought that it was organized enough to have its own movement.

But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. For these people, money is king. And that’s pretty much the entire point of this article, which details out what the Network State movement aims to accomplish (and how)—while also shooting it down and poking holes (massive ones) in its philosophy. To be fair, though, it’s not as if that’s a monumentally difficult task.

I have a few gripes: I feel like to a certain degree, the article conflates the desire to find alternative structures of governance and politics to the misguided libertarian ideal that undergirds the Network State movement. That’s a bit unfair, don’t you think? Because it seems to me that marginalized communities should be free to question the systems that keep them marginalized, and also propose alternatives.

In any case, this is going to be a quick read. Even more so if you’re familiar with the people named in this article. 20 minutes ish.

Thanks for reading! Please, please reach out if you have feedback, suggestions, or questions. Alternatively, you can fill out this super quick survey form. I promise it won’t even take five minutes of your time, and it’ll be a HUGE help!

ALSO: I know some of the stories I recommend might be behind paywalls. Maybe I can help you with access to those. Send me a message and let’s see what we can do 😊

Until next Monday! 👋