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Hi 👋 

Welcome back to The Lazy Reader, where we curate and enjoy of some of the best longform journalism across the internet ✨

Last week was extra exhausting for me, but surprisingly also very rewarding. I did a lot of travelling (and squeezing work in between trips), which knocked the air out of me, but also really refreshed my drive. I might just try and do a lot more jetsetting in the next few months. Hopefully.

All of that to say: I fell the tiniest bit behind my reading goals for the week. Theoretically, I could have knocked out a lot of words while in the air—and I did! I tried my absolute darnedest—but motion sickness is unfortunately a thing for me, and I didn’t want to ruin my or anyone else’s day by throwing up.

I’m still proud of our list this week, though! Average length might be on the shorter side (Maybe. I don’t actually calculate this stuff), but that doesn’t say anything about the overall quality of the narratives. A good story is a good story, I always say!

Here’s what you can expect:

• A boy who made his mark on the world despite a killer disease.

• Prisoners’ last meals before getting executed, and what it says about how carceral we are.

• A wake-up call to America about disinformation—on the heels of two climate catastrophes and ahead of a pivotal election.

Also: I’ve hit a wall in trying to grow the newsletter, and I need your help. Aside from TLR, where else do you get your longform recommendations? And what social media platforms do you frequent?

Let me know by replying to this email, or by filling out this form:

As with last week, please let me know what you think of the list this week by voting in the poll below.

Happy reading and see you again next Monday!

PS - This week’s TLR is supported by Authory.

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Story in Spotlight

I know you’re all probably getting very tired of AI at this point—it seems like everyone and their dog just keeps yapping about it.

And believe me, I feel the same way. Many days, I get so fed up with my brain for being so inexplicably enamored by some obscure facet of AI or whatever. Then I come across stories like these and I remember why I find AI so fascinating.

Because unlike most stories, which focus on our future with AI, the promise and perils of the tech, this one looks to the past. How did AI as we know it today—which for better or worse is symbolized by the Silicon Valley darling OpenAI—get its start? The answer, as is usually the case with any interesting story, isn’t simple.

Instead of the typical milquetoast, salesy origin story, OpenAI’s birth is marked by controversy. Allegedly, someone else came up with the idea of using extremely sophisticated generative machine learning technology to achieve impossible feats of computation that, when harnessed correctly, can help humanity reach new heights.

This supposed original inventor—a “kook,” according to some people who know him—is an interesting fellow, one who truly and genuinely believes in the possibilities of AI and the need to wield its power for good. This article invests a lot of space to follow his professional journey, in turn giving us his version of AI’s genesis. But not without a healthy helping of skepticism, of course.

In many important ways, this article tells the tale of the legal and ideological battle between OpenAI (no space; the billion-dollar company that’s now at the forefront of a massive industry) versus Open AI (with space; the belief that AI belongs to everyone, spearheaded by an eccentric but prescient tech bro whose patent claims are questionable).

The outcome of this duel is interesting, but so are the cultural and social patterns that it’s already revealing. This story does a really great job at bearing all of that out.

That this story is incredible should come as no surprise, because this was written by Evan Ratliff. For the uninitiated, he wrote the book The Mastermind, which sought to track down the extremely elusive and equally extremely dangerous druglord Paul Le Roux. He’s also the genius reporter that tried to wipe himself off the face of the Internet—and challenged online sleuths to track him down. An absolute legend.

Definitely carve out time for this story this week. It’s long, but not excessively so, and the prose makes it easy to follow along. This should take you no longer than 1 hour.

The Longform List

✍🏻 The Journalist and the Murderer | Vanity Fair, $ 

Allow me to get personal: I screwed up at work last week. It wasn’t big, but it also wasn’t something that I could just easily brush off. Thankfully, my client appears to be very chill about it, and there don’t seem to be any permanent harm done.

But that was very top of mind for me when I was reading this story, which follows a disgraced New York Times writer who got too carried away by his career and ended up turning in a fictional character for a journalistic report. He broke the cardinal rule of journalism, and he’s paying the price for it. It’s clear that he isn’t seeking pity points, but in telling the story of his downfall, he provides a really grounded point of juxtaposition for the alleged murderer who just… randomly came into his life.

And that’s where the story really starts to open up. I don’t want to spoil things for you (definitely go read this story), but I can say that the back-and-forth between the writer and the criminal is really compelling—and (on another personal note) really helped me cope with the shame and regret and self-flagellation that comes with making a mistake.

Maybe it could have a similar effect for you.

Really long, but also a relatively easy read. This is an excerpt from a book, which I am now tempted to buy. I’d commit more than 1 hour for this story. 1 and a half hours at most.

🖥️ We Only Learnt of Our Son’s secret Online Life After He Died at 25 | The Times, $

This is an incredible and incredibly heart-warming story—and it hits especially hard for me as an online gamer myself.

Pardon for getting a tiny bit personal again: I, too, have dumped countless hours into an MMORPG. Especially when I was young and bored with school, but even until now, I make it a point to carve out even a tiny piece of my day to dip into an online fantasy world. I have no shame about it. I am deeply appreciative of my forever game (and online family) for getting me through difficult times.

Maybe that’s why this story resonated very strongly with me. And why it made me extra emotional. I don’t claim to have the same level of suffering as the main character in this piece, but I definitely understand the solace and comfort that gaming brings, despite some really pointed judgement from other people.

Pretty long, but nowhere near the typical novella-length stories that I share. Maybe give it 30 to 40 minutes? Distractions included.

⛓️ The Killer and Mrs. Johnson | Westword, Free

Quick disclaimer: This is difficult and graphic story, with a very complicated subject matter. It tackles violence and death and the juvenile criminal justice system. If these things trigger you, I’d recommend skipping this one.

This story asks a very difficult question: What happens when a minor commits a heinous, violent crime? What do we want our justice system to do with them? And what if it turns out that that child was severely abused? Does that change the calculus?

It’s not like this is a new dilemma, too. There are many cases like these, but this story focuses on arguably the most infamous one—and the most confusing, too.

There’s really not much I can say about this story without either being annoyingly opaque about it, or being way too detailed for an overview. I mean that in the best way possible: This is a really well-reported and well-written story, with intricately layered details and thoughtfully laid-out arguments.

Very long, and can get winding in terms of details and events. Not the easiest read, but also an incredible experience overall. Probably allot at least 1 hour for this. Probably more.

👻 The Ghost Rapes of Bolivia | VICE News, Free

If the title isn’t enough of a warning yet, then I want to make it clear right away that this is yet another very difficult story. It contains several descriptions of sexual violence, as well as of victims being forced into silence. Please, please be careful when reading this, or feel free to skip it outright if you find these subjects triggering.

This story takes us deep into the Mennonite community in Bolivia, which, much like the Amish, reject modernity in almost all of its forms. Unfortunately, this way of life apparently also adopts a similarly backwards philosophy about women’s rights and wellbeing. Because how the hell does a crime like that go on for such a long time, and when the perpetrators get caught, it’s only because it’s the men that feel wronged, and not the women victims?

And the way that the commuity deals with gendered abuse—by which I mean they don’t deal with it at all and just hope that it disappears into silence—is even more frustrating. I got so worked up reading this story.

Pretty long. And again, can be very, very difficult to read. I’d give it an hour, including all the breaks you might need to take.

🕵🏻‍♀️ The Strange, Spectacular Con of Bobby Charles Thompson | Washingtonian, Free

I’ll be honest: I was skeptical coming into this story, and didn’t think it would make this week’s cut. I didn’t know who Bobby Charles Thompson was and what the United States Navy Veterans Association was. And so I found it hard to… care.

But then I got to the part where the crime slowly unfolded and wow. That’s one hell of a con. Something that, at some points, was almost unbelievable.

As it turns out, Bobby Charles Thompson isn’t Bobby Charles Thompson. And he’s also not the other handful of identities he says he is. And in telling this story, the writer not only tries to untangle the web of lies that he’s told and the string of crimes he’s left behind—but also tries to get to the root of who Bobby Charles Thompson really is. What’s his real name? When did the lies start? And what did he hope to get out of it?

Long. But not too difficult to read through, especially if you know the references in the story. Maybe 40 minutes.

🕵️‍♂️ Three Abandoned Children, Two Missing Parents and a 40-Year Mystery | The Guardian, Free

This one was quite the narrative trip.

In searching for her birth parents, an abandoned daughter finds herself looking in some pretty interesting places, not least of which is the sprawling and dangerous criminal underground. Could she have been born to a mafia boss? And given away to protect her from other gangs?

I went into this story thinking that it was going to be a heavy story about loss and potentially a horrendous crime, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was not. I mean… it’s still heavy, but in a different way. It turned out to be more heartwarming than anything, a tale of nature versus nurture and a journey to find out who the writer really is.

Long, but easy to read. Maybe 30 minutes if you can stay focused. 40 or more if you like to dip in and out. 

🍽️ Last Meals | Lapham’s Quarterly, Free

I’ve had this story on my TBR list for a very long time now, but for some reason I just kept pushing it back, in favor of other picks that were more obviously up my alley.

And after reading through it, I must say that I wasn’t completely off base. By which I mean that I have mixed feelings about this story. Don’t get me wrong: I deeply enjoyed its discussion on the death penalty, and the way its focus evolved from the last meal to our broader attitudes toward crime and punishment was just the tiniest bit shy of genius. I learned a lot—not just about the history behind last meals, but also about its symbolic value and what that says about us as a society.

I just think that this one had a more scholarly tone than I would have wanted. It’s less journalistic article and more term paper, if that makes sense. And that’s not necesasrily a bad thing. It’s just not something I find to be highly enjoyable.

Not too long but, and as I mentioned, it’s a bit too academic for my tastes. Which I know can contribute to a tougher reading experience. Maybe set aside 40 to 50 minutes for this? Just so you have the space to really digest the arguments. 

🪨 Buried Secrets | The New Yorker, $

One thing you can always count on is Patrick Radden Keefe delivering an amazing longform experience. And this one is no different.

That said, I do think that this is one of his weaker stories. Here, he takes on the subject of iron mining in West Africa, which in itself is a mammoth and complex subject. But inadvertently he runs up against the equally massive forces of corruption and capitalistic greed. And it feels like he’s bitten off more than he can chew. Because while he makes some smart and accurate points, he sometimes slides into tired old Third-World tropes, perhaps as a means to cover all his conceptual bases while still telling a reasonably compelling story.

I think reporting projects of this magnitude benefit from focusing on one particularly fascinating character and heart-grabbing narrative, rather than a wider (almost too-wide) industry critique.

Still, this is PRK we’re talking about. And you can expect his typical high-caliber storytelling from this piece.

Very, very long. And can be difficult to read in many spots, whether because of details that get too thick or because of those tropes that I mentioned. I’d allot more than 1 hour, maybe 1 hour and 30 minutes.

📰 I’m Running Out of Ways to Explain How Bad this is | The Atlantic, $

In light of the recent storms that ravaged parts of the U.S.—and in anticipation of the elections this November—this essay is very aptly timed. And also very astute in its observations.

Now, far be it from me recommending blind absolutism. Definitely not. Be skeptical, question everything. But also maybe don’t be an idiot about it?

I believe that many conspiracy theories are wrongly labeled as conspiracies mostly because there is a concerted effort to cover up what’s really going on in the world (especially in the name of national security), but also some are just truly outlandish conspiracies. Smart people can hold both of these truths in their head and still not come across as a loon.

Anyway, sorry for the rant. Read the story, please, especially if you live in the U.S. It’s a sobering depiction of how the country has been so heavily propagandized and what this might mean for the self-proclaimed top democracy in the world.

Not long. And really infuriating, too. Give it 20 minutes.

💭 Why Main Character Syndrome is Philosophically Dangerous | Aeon, Free

This is a pretty unique essay in that it invests a lot of brainpower into a relatively fun (and personally low-stakes) subject.

That said, I did think that the writer read a little bit too much into main character syndrome. Some of her arguments felt too forced for me, particularly when she tried to relate it to more radical environmental campaigns. (Not that I completely agree with those campaigns, too, but still). In some spots, the writer seemed to be stretching the definition of main character syndrome too far just to be able to make the points that she wanted to.

Still, I think this is an important essay to share, if only because it’s one of the very few systematic analyses on main character syndrome. And I agree with the writer that this is something that we’ve been dealing with for a long time now—and it’s at least partly responsible for many of the social problems we’re seeing today.

Not too long, and can be a bit difficult to follow in some spots. I recommend setting aside 45 minutes for it so you can really take your time with the arguments.

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, and maybe I can help you with access to those. Send me a message and let’s see what we can do 😊

Until next Monday! 👋