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Hi 👋 

It’s Monday again, which means it’s time for us to again curate some of the best longform journalism from across the Web ✨

BUT that also means that it’s Monday again 😩

Weekends have been feeling extra short since the year started. Anyone else? I’ve been having to pull six-day work weeks (sometimes a bit longer) since the year started. I feel like I’ve had to fight for the few rest days that I’ve taken.

And so weekends have been feeling extra short for me, and Mondays have been extra painful. But I’m sure that’s a universal feeling.

So for everyone out there who’s feeling extra gloomy today, I got a longread list for you. Hopefully this helps make Monday a bit easier to bear.

A peek at what’s in this week’s newsletter:

• How the Vatican selects saints.

• An intelligence officer who helped the U.S. win the Cold War.

• In case of assault, dating apps look the other way.

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 - Thanks to Lulu for supporting this week’s newsletter! Please, please consider clicking their ad link below the fold (or at the banner above). It’s free and easy, and it’s a great way of helping out The Lazy Reader. Thank you so much!

Story in Spotlight

Such a beautiful story, such beautiful writing.

Just in the first few sentences, I knew in my bones that this had to be our spotlight pick of the week. There’s just something with the prose here. It’s confident enough to do away with usual conventions of magazine journalism, but expert enough that you still fully understand what the writer is trying to say, what the writer is feeling, what the writer wants you to take away.

This is something that only someone with decades of experience—both professional and personal—can pull off.

The material of story itself is also something that can only come from someone with immeasurable depth of experience. From actually living.

At the risk of spoiling: The writer, through his son, finds out that he has other children he never knew of. A simple premise, but one that kicks off a long and pensive retelling of the writer’s life. And what a life it’s been.

It’s been full of pain and loss, mistakes and misdirections, foolish words and rash decisions. But it’s also been full of lessons and, as he realizes through writing this essay, it’s been full of love. Especially now, as he approaches his final years, he discovers that there’s so much love around him. And in his heart.

And it’s this love that allows him and his newly found children to overcome their complicated history and connect with each other and form bonds, however tentative, however awkward.

The story is bittersweet. Like all things in life, it doesn’t end in something clean and satisfying. It isn’t a neat narrative. But it’s a beautiful kind of bittersweet, I think. It’s a bittersweet that, for the writer, despite approaching his final years, lets him know that there’s still so much more love and warmth and growth that he can experience.

An incredible reading experience all around.

Long, but a very easy read. Also very heartwarming. Maybe 30 minutes.

The Longform List

Inside the Vatican’s Secret Maint-Making Process | The Guardian, Free

Really interesting look at the seat of power of what is likely the world’s most powerful religion. Some talk here about the Vatican using sainthood as a means to control popular piety, something that I wish was expounded on some more. Still great tough. Writer must have gone through so much redtape during reporting.

Everybody Wanted to Save Hannah Kobayashi | New York Magazine, $

Saw this on Reddit recently and one commenter said something along the lines of "there’s so much ego going on here,” which I think is the perfect way to describe this. Fun mystery with an okay payoff. Wild cast of characters who are either too stubborn, prideful, or annoying.

Thieves in the Night: A Vast Burglary Ring From Chile Has Been Targeting Wealthy U.S. Households | Vanity Fair, $

Really gripping crime story, though it gets stale toward the end. Impressive, in-depth reporting from the writer, too. Curious about how much of the language used here can be construed as inflammatory, given the current political climate in the U.S. Genuinely curious; not nearly knowledgeable enough to speak on it.

The Secret History of a Cold War Mastermind | WIRED, $

Compelling story about an equally compelling person. Admirable effort from the writer here to fact-check a tale that made the legend. Great story, interesting history, but I have trouble agreeing with stories that venerate these architects of war and conflict. Still a great read, though.

Let’s Be Clear – The US Never had Moral Supremacy. With Trump, it’s Not Even Pretending Any More | The Guardian, Free

Not long, which is unfortunate, because this is probably my favorite entry on this list. Pity that this was written by a Brit (also no moral ascendacy there), but the points are spot-on. Where I live, people are so fascinated by how the U.S. is (purportedly) a bastion of human rights and whatever, but it’s never been that. I wish more people realized that.

The True Price of Sportswear | The Dial, Free

Always a pleasure to share stories from outlets that aren’t as big as the usual suspects. This one, from The Dial, looks at what is essentially the sweatshop industry in Lesotho, rife with exploitation, labor violations and sexual abuse. Don’t appreciate how the writer put a positive spin on it, though. Sure, jobs give us economic freedom, but shouldn’t that be a given at this point?

Dating App Cover-Up: How Tinder, Hinge, and Their Corporate Owner Keep Rape Under Wraps | The Markup, Free

There appears to be a program going around supporting reportage about dating apps, which is why there’s been a lot of stories about those recently. This one I think is the most impactful, showing how these tech companies don’t actually take their users’ safety seriously, and would much rather do nothing than take proven predators off their apps.

The Fantasy of a Nonprofit Dating App | The Atlantic, $

Also on dating apps, this time trying to take the commercial aspect out of the equation by looking at what a non-profit, academe-led dating app would look like. I feel like much of the main argument could easily be dismantled, though: After all, aren’t research groups funded? They, too, have some fiscal motive that could potentially be in conflict with an app that genuinely cares about users.

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Bonus!

This article, from left-leaning non-profit Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, has a commendable goal. It tries to dismantle the current dominant definition of corruption and, in its place, propose something that is more broad and encompasses not only those in public service, but also those in powerful private and non-governmental posts.

After all, many of those players, as this piece argues, realistically wield so much influence after a state’s finances—contracts, partnerships and conditional aid.

The piece sets a very high threshold for itself, and while I don’t know if it comfortably clears that bar, I do think that it definitely pulls off a great job.

Now I may be biased here: While there are a few points that I’m skeptical of, for the most part, I agree (sometimes strongly) with what Tricontinental is trying to do here. The non-profit industrial complex, as it is widely known, is very bare-faced in its attempt to dismiss, if not outright undermine, many nationalist and grassroots movements in Africa (and across the Global South) more broadly.

Corruption is a linchpin reasoning for many of these campaigns. It’s become extremely common to see these big, high-profile reports essentially trashing entire countries because of corruption—a word that appears in these reports ad nauseam, so much so that it starts to lose its meaning.

(Which I think is part of the point. What does corruption mean, after all? And why does it mean what it means? Who sets the meanings here, and do they have any ulterior motives? Might sound conspiratorial, but all very valid questions to ask, in my opinion.)

Before I’m misconstrued: I’m not saying these allegations of corruptions aren’t true. In most cases they are. Governments are corrupt. Politics is corrupt. That’s just a fact of life that I think we should all accept.

But, as this piece argues, that’s not the full picture. There’s a reason why people in power grow corrupt, some much easier than others. There’s a reason that certain governmental structures lend themselves much more readily to corruption than others. And there’s a massive factor behind corruption that these reports often gloss over. Money. The corrupter. Maybe we should also look at those forces, too, for a more complete picture of corruption (and, by extension, the perpetual poverty of the Global South).

Long and can be difficult to read. Maybe 40 to 50 minutes.

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! 👋