Hi 👋 

Here’s this week’s list, finally! If you missed Monday’s email,

I’ve been having a lot of fun diving into the deeper, more sprawling longform stories, rather than the shorter, news-feature type pieces. So if the lists have been seeming shorter than our usual fare, that’s why. They’re not actually shorter, though. There may be fewer items, but each entry is much longer, much deeper, much more gripping.

Lists will probably start looking more and more like this for the coming weeks. Hope that’s something you enjoy as much as I do!

In any case, if last week’s newsletter somehow found its way into your spam or promos folder, here’s what you missed:

• A doomed navy ship and unbelievable displays of determination.

• Can a serial killer actually grow remorseful? Or is it another one of his cons?

• Asking the hard questions about evolution.

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 on Monday! (On time, hopefully.)

Story in Spotlight

Content warning: Contains mentions and descriptions of sexual assault and other forms of gendered violence. Feel free to skip for your wellbeing.

Ronan Farrow is a force of nature.

Unfortunately, I don’t think I can say the same for Johnson City’s law enforcement. As Ronan uncovers, local authorities aren’t just incompetent buffoons, but are actually intentionally malicious against victims of sexual assault. In favor of this one rich and powerful man in the community, police and even prosecutors willfully ignored—and buried—the allegations of multiple women.

And they weren’t simple allegations, too. These women were drugged and sexually assaulted. One was so repulsed at what had happened to her (and were so out of it) that they flung themselves out of a window. One, allegedly, had been driven to crash her own car. There were even signs _ that this man was doing this same horrible stuff to children.

And yet, for years, there had been no legal action. The police department even forced out a woman who had taken to investigating these crimes.

Ronan never really gets to the bottom of it. He’s consistently stonewalled by the local authorities. But that in itself is very telling. And that’s where his genius shows: He makes perfect use of these non-response responses, putting on full display just how little these law enforcement agencies are actually on our side. No accountability at all. They’d rather stick up for their corrupt colleagues than take some responsibility.

Some few things that should really go without saying, since we’re talking about Ronan Farrow here: Incredible reportage, as always. He’s the perfect writer to have done this story. Only a reporter of his caliber could have surfaced all these details, all these facts that the authorities wanted to keep hidden. Plus his prose is as tight as can be, and structuring is really smart.

Very, very long. But also very important. Set aside 1 hour at least.

The Longform List

The Eruption Of Instagram Island | GQ, $

Started cringing about a quarter way through and my face only returned to normal after I finished the article. Incredible reporting and incredible story. Details and back stories are as rich as they can be, and really lend to how heart-breaking this one is. Expected nothing less from GQ.

Life Among the Dead | bioGraphic, Free

I’ve been having somewhat of a drought of good science writing in the last few weeks, so this one felt glorious. Subject matter here was a freebie for the writer (death and decay is very easy to make interesting), but the way it was approached was just superb. It might get a bit thick with jargon in some spots, but the writer expertly holds your hand through it, without making you feel dumb.

Big, big plus points for the last few paragraphs, which really took this story to the next level.

He Emptied an Entire Crypto Exchange Onto a Thumb Drive. Then He Disappeared | WIRED, $

Never really understood crypto and for the longest time, I was unequivocally against it. I’ve started to mellow a bit in the past year, recognizing that things are rarely completely good or completely bad. This story might have swung me back, though. Apparently it’s very easy to pull the rug, so to speak, from under your investors’ feet, especially in countries where regulation isn’t as tight. I’m on the market for good investment opportunities, but I’d rather not give my life’s earnings to some tech bro.

Measles for the One Percent | The Cut, $

Unfortunately, this story is once again relevant—probably the most relevant it’s been since being published. It’s interesting (if not a bit funny) to watch the ultra-rich be so out-of-touch, so self-centered, so short-sighted. Guess that shouldn’t be so surprising. If only their selfishness didn’t affect anyone else.

Winter’s Tale | Tampa Bay Times, $

Really heart-warming tale about a dolphin’s tail. Which is not a sentence that I expected to ever agree with, but here we are. Research here is clean, but nothing special. What really makes the piece sing, I think, is where the writer chose to take the story. He could have done so many other things with a tail-less dolphin, but his angling here was a true stroke of genius, in my opinion.

The King of Kowloon: My Search for the Cult Graffiti Prophet of Hong Kong | The Guardian, Free

Really, really interesting way to profile an artist. Because yes, I think that in a way, this is a profile. Not just of a person but also of a country and its fraught history of being conquered and passed from one colonial overlord to the next.

Forgive a ramble: I didn’t really appreciate how the King was painted as this crazy person mostly up until the establishment deemed his work to be of high-culture. Makes it seem like taking the fight to the streets is a less valid, lower form of struggle, of art, of expression, and that it still needs a seal of approval from big institutions.

The Last Drops of Mexico City | Longlead, Free

Very happy to have found another outlet that runs really good longform stories. Credit to Reddit for this one, since I never would have found it otherwise if I hadn’t been following some longform-oriented subs. Typically, I don’t like stories that go wide instead of going deep. But I think this one pulled that off really well, and packaging the story as a photo essay of some sort worked really, really well for this.

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! 👋