'Give him life for just a little bit longer.'

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Hi 👋 

Happy new year! Ready for another year of longform reading? ✨

We’re kicking 2026 off strong, with a really dense list anchored by two series. And while they’re both relatively short, they were also some of the most profound, complex and emotionally raw reading experiences I’ve had in a while.

We saw a nice spike of subs in the last week of December (which was a really good feeling!) so if you’re new here, welcome! If you’ve been a long-time reader, welcome back! And thank you for sticking with TLR. It’ll be much of the same this year: A reliable stream of gripping longform journalism to help you pass the weeks. I have some new social and content ideas that I want to try, but I’m not pressuring myself to roll those out. Maybe we’ll get to see some of those in 2026—who knows?

What I do know is you should vote in the poll below to let me know what you thought of this week’s list. And that you should feel free to reach out with comments, suggestions, and feedback. Or just to chat 🙂 

In any case, enough of my blabbering. Let’s jump into it!

Happy reading and see you again next Monday!

PS - Thanks as usual to 1440 Media for helping to make this week’s newsletter possible! Please, please consider clicking their ad links below. It’s free, easy and really helps me out!

Part 2: Life With Little Man: As They Said he was Dying, Ethan Arbelo Wasn't Done Living 

Part 3: Life With Little Man: Accepting his 'Order,' a Marine Returns Home

Might seem a bit bleak to start the new year with a story of a kid with cancer, but trust me: This one is very much about celebrating life and keeping the faith.

Despite being diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer—anaplastic astrocytoma; he insisted people know what the disease exactly was—Ethan Arbelo refused to be cowed. He and his mom wanted not just to fight the tumor but also to live what was left of his life to the fullest. The story is a refreshing reminder of the things that matter to a preteen: scoring that first kiss, cartoonishly juvenile hobbies, sex. Ethan wanted to try them all at least once before passing on.

There’s an overarching sense of dread of the inevitable, of course. But the story is also infused with a powerful heart-warming sensation. A mom racing against the clock and cancer to give her young boy the best life possible. An unlikely community of fighters and supporters wanting the best for this kid. And a brave warrior who refuses to lose his heart.

This series came out more than a decade ago, and life has moved forward since for the people Ethan left behind. I wish only love and light for them.

My Drowning (And Other Inconveniences) | Outside, $

Incredible essay. Probably one of my favorites. Adventure writing isn’t something I’m 100% sold on (why would you put yourself in that situation? I don't get it) and Tim Cahill captures that perfectly here. Things can go very wrong very quickly, and for him that meant dying. Like actually dying. No heartbeat, no pulse, no breaths taken. Obviously, he came back from it because he was able to write this essay—and opine on the meaning of life and death and what he refers to as the grand story of humanity. It gets a bit abstract and hard to grasp at the end, but not in a bad way I think.

There’s lots of wisdom to pick up here (as one would expect from someone who literally died) but even if you just read surface-level, this essay is still an amazing experience.

Agent Zapata | The Atavist, $

Kind of timely re-read, given how ICE is top-of-mind for the U.S. right now, though not exactly in a good light. There was a time, as this story shows, when the agency was revered. Or at least, when their violations were glossed over by the press.

In many ways, this piece focuses more on the institutional failures of the government to protect its agents and seek justice for them. Pretty cookie-cutter now that I really think about it. The piece also goes into the Central-America drug trade, but I feel like these types of topics always tinged a little too heavily with racial colors. I would have wanted a more critical look at Zapata, too, though I understand that the publication could have found that a bit in bad taste, given what happened.

The Lithium Mine Versus the Wildflower | WIRED, $

Nothing really ground-breaking here, but a solid environment story all around. I appreciate the framing of this as a battle between two imperfect combatants. The conservation tension is rarely clear-cut: It’s often a choice between a double-edged energy alternative and an obscure species we know almost nothing about. We need stories like these.

That said, I do think this piece doesn’t really offer any strong arguments for either side. Which I guess is to be expected given WIRED’s leanings, but is still a bit disappointing. Most of the arguments raised are old talking points, and it would have been much more interesting, I think, if the piece were a bit braver in its analysis.

Boys at her School Shared AI-Generated, Nude Images of her. She was the one Expelled | ABC News, Free 

Harrowing story, but wholly unsurprising. This piece, though shorter than our usual longform fare, does a great job at snapshotting two of our biggest (but underappreciated) social tensions today: AI and the silencing of victims, especially women. Because what do you mean the school expelled the girl here? How is she the one suffering—not just socially and emotionally, but also educationally—the consequences of her own sexual harassment?

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Part 2: Love and Death in Silicon Prairie, Part II: The Killing of Betty Gore 

Also not the most intuitive of choices to ring in the new year—and this time there’s not a heart-warming twist to it. Unlike the Ethan Arbelo series above, this one, from Texas Monthly, is just straight up bleak and infuriating. If you don’t want that energy just yet, definitely feel free to skip this.

But if you do want to give it a go, here’s a quick elevator pitch, with some heavy editorializing from me: Two people who live happy, comfortable lives (all things considered) think being bored is the same as being stuck in bad marriages. So they start hooking up. And while they make explicit promises to not fall in love, that’s what ends up happening. Absolutely shocking. Things then turn for the worse and get really bloody. So it goes.

If it wasn’t clear yet, this series pissed me off in ways not conducive to a healthy mental state. I despise cheaters, and following two especially dense and clumsy ones was especially awful. Awful in the best way possible, I mean, especially from a reader’s standpoint. It speaks a lot to Jim Atkinson and John Bloom’s skills that they were able to rile me up so effectively.

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! 👋

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