'Is he alive?'

Hi 👋 

Another Monday, another Lazy Reader longform list ✨

Anyone else have other hobbies outside of longform reading? I feel like my other interests have been pulling me away from the longform life for a bit now. Not complaining—just sort of putting it out there and maybe looking for some kindred spirits among you guys. Anyone into video games and books and comics?

Anyhoo: some standouts from last week’s email:

• Vanity Fair The Killing Trail

• The Guardian ‘Degrading’: Why Did a US Fighter Pilot avoid British Trial After Strangling a Woman in England?

• MacLean’s The Hunt for Mr. Deepfakes

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!

A very gripping one from The Atavist this week.

Mysterious fires erupt all over this tiny town, some of which are very suspicious in origin, with no clear rational or scientific explanation. Questions fester, doubts build, and conspiracies build—magnified by an inept local government that fails to not only do anything about the fires but also to transparently engage with its potential causes.

The mystery is solved years later, or is it? People refuse to accept a simple answer for what turned out to be years of suffering and paranoia. This article is one of the clearest and strongest demonstrations of how truth loses its punch.

A deeply infuriating piece about how Russia so cavalierly massacred hundreds of thousands of whales, decimating their global population to the point of near-extinction—and how the state ran an oppressive program to force its scientists and other watchers (even supposedly impartial international ones) to lie about it.

There is one disgusting detail that sets this particular affront apart from its contemporaries, and largely sets the tone for the era of environmental abuse that would follow: Russia had no real demand for whales. It had no reason to kill these animals. Much like how the richest countries (and conglomerates) today have no real reason to keep pilfering the planet aside from margins.

This story tackles the supreme cruelty and impunity of the U.S.’s immigration policies under the second Trump administration.

This man, José Manuel Ramos Bastidas, had done everything right: He didn’t enter the country illegally. Instead, he did things by the book. He went to the proper authorities and accepted the rejection. He was fine to be sent back to his home country. All the U.S. had to do was open his jail cell. Instead, Ramos is now missing, swallowed by America’s penal system, and possibly shipped to an off-shore high-security prison.

An upfront disclaimer: This isn’t long at all. Maybe 3 minutes’ worth of reading. I know that’s not our usual brand, but this is a heartbreaking essay that really resonated with me. My parents are growing older, too, and that’s becoming more of a reality for me. I would have wanted a deeper interrogation of this dynamic here, but the essay takes a frankly flat and shallow turn.

These are the types of stories that helped build the NYT up to be a longform powerhouse. I wish it started doing this more.

The writer here gets an incredible in. One of the Web’s earliest and biggest trolls opens his life up to Matthias Schwartz, giving us an unprecedented close look at how an online rabble-rouser lives and behaves. The article gets uncomfortably intimate, too: We read about the misanthropic, anarchic philosophies of Internet trolling, and are confronted with the disquieting realizations that, on some level, it makes sense.

What pushes a person past our social norms and into the territory of fearsome online violence? How does one go from grumbling or whining or protesting to threatening or scamming or doxxing?

I’m always in awe of how strong women can be. I’ve recently run into a professional rough patch: Some bad comments, some slip-ups. And yet I already feel discouraged and disappointed and shamed and angry. But Lindy West here displays cosmic levels of courage and grace and gumption.

When faced with a troll who assumes the responsibility of her deceased father, she confronts him head-on, meeting his vitriol with curiosity and patience—and ultimately even finds it in her spirit to forgive. I don’t know that I’ll ever have the same degree of strength she showed here.

An interesting story here: A cybersecurity expert built her career by going down different paths. This put her on to hacker forums and other online communities that later would give birth to the Com movement, a coalition of losers and low-lives who find pleasure in tormenting others online. But her work also put her in the line of fire: Before long, these hackers and trolls turned their crosshairs onto her. She wasn’t a meek victim, however, and was ready to fight back.

This is a decent piece overall. Not sure it does anything special. Research is good and prose does what it needs to do—but it’s nothing that truly makes a mark on you.

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! 👋