If You Build It, They Will Come

PLUS: Payroll spies, a mythical kangaroo, and the fossil fuel backers of transphobes.

June 16, 2025

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Hi 👋 

We’re back again with another reading list of some of the best longform journalism across the internet ✨

My laptop has been going crazy the past few days. The Enter, Backspace and Space keys are acting up and sometimes refuse to respond at all. It’s very annoying, and it makes writing these emails up more of a chore than something I enjoy. I need to go find the time to visit a repair shop or something.

Pardon the rant—didn’t have anything special to say for the intro this week anyway.

If you missed last week’s email, here are some choice picks:

As always, 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 again for 1440 Media for supporting this week’s edition! I think my newsletter provider is, for whatever reason, disallowing us from asking you guys to engage with our ads. Which is crazy. In any case, you know what to do! And thanks again for helping keep TLR going.

Story in Spotlight

Tent City, U.S.A.

A field study, in these Hard Times, of the Homeless (as observed in the H Street Encampment, Fresno, California). Being an examination of who they are, how they think, and what they do.

I truly am a sucker for stories that are told in unconventional ways.

Because at the core of it, that’s what made me pick this GQ piece as this week’s spotlight over The New Yorker article below (you’ll see it right after the break). And if I’m being honest, I’d even argue that that story, about one of the most violent but unknown displays of U.S. xenophobia in history, is more important than this one, given the times we live in now.

But I was just really captured by how this story was reported and written, with writer George Saunders living for a week in the titular Tent City and presenting the entire experience as an “in situ study”—one where he’s the researcher and the Tent City was the study area and its inhabitants, some of America’s most destitute and desperate people, are the study subjects.

And I’ll admit: At first, this approach felt off to me. Like Saunders was making light of the very real, very difficult experience of these people. And maybe he was. But very quickly, his borderline condescending tone quickly morphs into empathy. He even reaches a point where he feels so much pain and compassion for one of the Tent City residents that he’s brought to tears. Of course, that’s before he finds out that much of this sob story was a lie.

That part of it—not the lies, but the incredibly colorful cast of characters—takes this story to another level, in my opinion, especially with how the writer looks how personhood suffers in the face of poverty. And how the poor deserve to be seen as people regardless.

He puts it best:

In the real world, however, the unfortunate may not be so likable. They may be stupid, dishonest, lazy, or mean. They may obfuscate, they may attack those weaker than themselves, they may claim their poverty is the fault of an unfair world, they may invent lives for themselves in which they are heroic sages, ahead of the curve. These negative qualities, in fact, may be the root cause of their misfortune.

But to love the unfortunate, it is not necessary to feel fond of them or tenderness toward them. Momentary irritations are inevitable, the PR came to feel; they are also irrelevant. All we must do is what we would do if we could see the unfortunate purely. Our minds can be kind when our hearts cannot. In time, he predicted, his irritation would recede and all that would remain would be feelings of sadness and protectiveness toward the Study Area residents, who, after all, had not killed or abused him but had let him walk among them with impunity, and had even been kind to him, if not always to one another.

Very long, but honestly really easy to read. I took an hour.

The Longform List

With what’s been happening recently in the U.S., there’s been a lot of talk of how this is not how we are or we’re better than this. Which is fine and well-meaning, but in my opinion is naive and, worse, dangerous. U.S. history is full of these episodes of racially charged parochialism, often aggravated (if not outright caused by) economic worries. That is to say, the xenophobia and bigotry we see playing out on the streets right now is all but baked into the U.S. DNA.

This story is just one example of that—and it’s one hell of an example. It has it all, in my estimation: extreme violence; naked xenophobia; law enforcement are bound by duty to seek justice but are lowkey sympathetic to the violent mob; a justice system that doesn’t really care; and a local community of enablers, who would rather forget than do the painful work of addressing the problem at its core.

Island of Secrets | The Atavist, $

Classic Atavist here, with a story that goes incredibly deep into something that is so niche and underreported, but with massive implications. This one, though, is much more character-driven than most other Atavist stories, which I think is both its strongest and weakest point. John Lane, the person at the heart of this piece, is for sure a large enough character to carry tens of thousands of words, but I think a hyper-focus on him sort of glosses over some of the larger, more systemic things that also warrant a longform piece.

Was surprised at how much I enjoyed this story. Payroll software is about as exciting as watching an ice cube melt. But I guess its corporate espionage color is compelling enough to have hooked me completely. It helps, too, that the stakes aren’t too high here—just a few hundred million dollars lost by already-millionaires, for whom I really can’t care less—which makes this story a relatively light read.

I never really understood the Greek obsession. When I was in university, I saw fraternities and sororities to just be these big exclusive cliques that liked to get drunk and be noisy, rather than be the productive organizations that they claimed they were.

What really irks me about these groups, though, and which the story so perfectly captures, is how high up their connections go. And how they become so powerful as a result of this. I don’t doubt for a second that many pledges have suffered serious injuries while being initiated, and that some have even died (as in this story). It’s just that their cases likely get buried or settled quietly because some frat alumnus is in a place of power or something.

A School of Their Own | Truly*Adventurous, Free

In what is a complete 180 from the Boston Magazine story above, this story gives us a peek into what a legitimately progressive college movement can become. And yeah, sure, it still goes up against the reality that people in power (ie, the school board, its administration) will often be unshakeable in their desire to f*ck us over, but that’s no reason to just roll over and surrender. And that’s definitely no reason to just consign your organization—whether that may be a grassroots feminist group or some fraternity—to just partying and drinking.

The Delay | Esquire, $

Really heartbreaking story here, but one that’s much more complex than what the first 10 or so grafs make it out to be. The writer opens with a few vignettes that make it seem like the problem is jurisdictional, but then quickly makes it clear that the wounds are much deeper than that. There’s the question of insufficient funding and training for these Indigenous Communities, and also their fruaght history of being conquered.

That said, this is still a crime story at heart, which I think made it difficult for the writer to really explore these themes. But it’s one hell of a crime story though!

Always a pleasure to include a story from lesser-known publications in our weekly lists.

Of course, though, I didn’t just put this story here for the sake of having a player on the newsletter. This one is still a really good read and an impressive feat of storytelling. Reporting is also strong: The writer was able to find a niche case of baby smuggling (not a phrase I thought I’d write today!) and tease out not just the legal complexities of this entire episode, but also the different stories and motivations of the people involved.

Relatively shoter than what we usually run, but still very enjoyable.

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Bonus!

Fossil Fuel Billionaires Are Bankrolling the Anti-Trans Movement

An investigation shared exclusively with Atmos finds that 80% of anti-trans organizations receive fossil fuel funding.

Putting this as a bonus because it’s very short—much, much shorter than what we usually run. I’m not sure this even qualifies as longform…

But I still think it’s a very important piece. It draws clear connections between two big political flashpoints of our time: trans rights and the climate crisis. And while I admit that there could have been a bigger investigative push from this story (it relied primarily on other reporting and an unreleased qualitative study that hasn’t been peer-reviewed yet), it still makes clear that these big systemic problems may seem isolated from each other, but they’re really not.

There might even be an argument that they’re being made to seem separate from each other. And I guess in that context it’s important, too, to realize that social justice efforts need to link up across these different issues.

As another mini bonus, I’m adding another related story below:

Revealed: Shell oil non-profit donated to anti-climate groups behind Project 2025

Foundation says it ‘does not endorse any organizations’ while funneling hundreds of thousands to rightwing causes

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!

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Until next Monday! 👋

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