Hi 👋 

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

Keeping the intro short this week. I feel like we’re in that stretch of time where no one really knows what day it is or what’s supposed to be happening. Might be the post-election daze, or maybe everyone just wants the year to end already. Wants to get into that holiday mood.

I might be way off base, but that’s how it feels to me. Like I’m just floating from day to day, week to week.

Anyway, here’s what you can expect in this newsletter:

• Really intelligent ramblings about travel and belonging.

• The first victims of the climate catastrophe in the U.S.

• A humorous take on the country’s most fearsome highway.

As with last week, please let me know what you think of the list this week by voting in the poll below.

OR, 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!

Happy reading and see you again next Monday!

Story in Spotlight

I always have high expectations for stories from David Grann. Probably higher than it should be, but to be fair, he’s never let me down. His stories always turn out to be massive pieces of genius writing and reporting.

And this one is no different.

That said, I will admit that I had a skeptical eyebrow raised throughout a sizeable early chunk of this story. I didn’t understand why anyone would put themselves through that. Why willingly subject yourself to such extreme suffering? It seemed to me that the pursuit of some vague, amorphous sense of whatever it is that was inside of Worsley was an unsatisfying explanation. Couldn’t he have enriched himself through… I don’t know… service? Or charity?

And look: I still don’t understand his drive. And I definitely would not do that myself, nor would I want my partner to risk our life together for a chance to conquer Antarctica. But somewhere along the story, David thoroughly convinced me to go along with it. And what a fu—ing ride he took me on.

As per usual, his prose is incredible, and his research even more so. I have absolutely no idea how David was able to obtain around half of the details he put in the story. It’s like he was right there with the adventurers, capturing even tiny movements, slight changes in expressions. It’s crazy.

And at some point, I became empathetic for Worsley, despite the massive gulf in understanding. (Yet more evidence of David’s writing genius.) That makes the story even more riveting and touching and heart-breaking. I’m glad I carved the time out to read this story.

Very, very long. But also very, very worth it. Definitely find the time for this. You might need to carve out 1 hour (possibly more).

The Longform List

🐀 In Defense of the Rat | Hakai Magazine, Free

Sometimes, you come across an impeccable piece of science writing that you just have to take a step back and look at the ways in which it changed your life.

That’s how this story felt to me. Now to be clear, it’s not as if this was some incredibly revelatory investigation—this story just drew from existing bodies of scientific literature and knowledge of experts. Nothing completely new to the field of science. But I guess it’s how the story was executed that made it really stick with me? The prose and pacing were excellent and the structuring was very intelligent and worked to make the writer’s points more compelling.

And it might seem really pointless to spend so much energy arguing for rats, but as with most lines of basic science research, these types of efforts really help set us up f or a deeper, much richer understanding of the world around us. In the case of this story, though, such a seemingly shallow endeavor helped me paint a fuller understanding of us as a species, too.

Pretty long, but not a difficult read. I’d say maybe 25 minutes?

👯 The Han Twins | Medium (Truly*Adventurous), Free

Again with the Medium banger!

I was speaking with a reader recently and it turns out Truly*Adventurous has quite the reputation for putting out quality journalism. It was a favorite for theirs for a long time before the pub folded. That makes me doubly sad—one because I missed out on so many years of good storytelling, and two because that’s one more quality outlet gone ☹️ 

And that’s extra disappointing because these are the kinds of stories that they used to put out. The reporting and the writing here easily rivals, if not outmatches, those from big media publications. And the story itself is just as gripping, telling the story of twins who shared so many similarities but ended up gowing down to very different, dark paths in life.

Long, but not excesively so. Maybe 20 minutes? A bit more if you like to take breaks. 

☠️ Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved by America’s Ruling Class, Finally Dies | Rolling Stone, $

Okay look: I’m not the type to spit on anyone’s grave, but… let’s just say that it’s hard to be kind and graceful to certain, genocidal, war-mongering people.

In just a few days, it will be the one-year death anniversary of Henry Kissinger. I remember last year when the news broke how I felt so frustrated by how many establishment politicos (not just in the U.S., but even in the obscure Third-World former-colony that I live in) were so… celebratory of his legacy.

But what legacy, exactly? I understand that as a career politician and otherwise very infuential person, Kissinger has an extensive network of other very influential people who might not otherwise want to sully his name. And he may have done at least some good over the length of his career. But, as this story details, as far as the rest of the planet is concerned, he was a force of evil with a lot of blood on his hands.

Long, but really important, especially given how U.S. foreign policy has become a flashpoint in recent months (years, if I’m being honest). Allot maybe 50 minutes?

🏝️ The Country’s First Climate Change Casualties? | Pacific Standard, Free

This is another one of those really good publications that unfortunately had to fold because of the sharp downturn in the industry.

To my mind, Pacific Standard occupies a similar niche as Buzzfeed News did, with their brave, irreverent, if not slightly antagonistic stories. I understand that many people (especially those at the top) might bristle at that, but I kind of miss that type of writing. I feel like there’s always a place for stories that unapologetically stir the pot, so to speak.

And I think this story does that well. It rides the tension between the conservative tendency to stay put and resist change, and the existential need to adapt to an increasingly hostile planet. It doesn’t help, too, that the wedge between these sides is the climate catastrophe, which conservatives famously like to deny, and which has become a political battleground.

There’s a lot to unpack here, and it’s easy to just dismiss either side, but I think the point of the story is that it calls on us to extend far more empathy and understanding than we typically would—and maybe that’s the crucial first step toward actually doing something about the crisis.

Long, and can be offputting for some toward the middle, for political reasons. But I suggest you stay with it because it’s a really strong story. Maybe 35 minutes. 

📦 Ancient Jars | Cleveland Review of Books, Free

You know, I didn’t really expect much from this essay when I first started it. And I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t roll my eyes a few times at it (an entire essay about boxes? Really? And some arguments felt a bit too much of a stretch to me).

But then for whatever reason, it really grew on me. Maybe all it needed was a couple of re-reads (which isn’t always a good thing, especially in the attention economy). At some point, the writer’s musings on containment and being contained—and what that means about life—started to make sense to me, but not in the logical way in which meanings lock into place. But more in the poetic sense where meaning came to me as fragments of images and gave me vague feelings of rage, loneliness, warmth, indignance, and so many other complicated emotions.

And the short personal asides that the writer interspersed between his longer analyses honestly took the entire essay to a new level for me.

Not too long, but can take some time and effort to really get on with. But otherwise, I’d probably set aside 20 minutes.

🌫️ The Toxic Wave That Swallowed a Tennessee Town | Oxford American, Free

Now this is how you do an excerpt.

Granted, that’s probably not saying much because I think this was just lifted nearly directly from one of the book’s earliest chapters—but still. It gives you just the right amount of information to start caring about the people in the story, and it builds tension really well, enough to keep you hooked. On that front, it helps, too, that it’s not a crazy long excerpt.

And the story itself isn’t something to dismiss, either. It takes a few paragraphs for the title to click, but when it does, it hits you like a… well, like a “black wave at least fifty feet high … with the power and violence of water punching through a dam.”

Definitely want to pick up a copy of that book now.

Not long at all, which really helps make its case as an excerpt. Maybe 10 minutes if you can stay focused.

🛣️ Highway to Hell: A Journey Down America’s Most Haunted Road | Atlas Obscura, Free

For those of you who are familiar with Taffy Akner—and who have experienced her writing style—you already know what you’re in for.

Which is to say that this is a jarring but pleasant experience. The title sets the story up for a dark, sinister vibe, but that’s not how Taffy writes at all. She approaches the subject with a lot of humor and skepticism (which, if I’m being very honest, can feel the tiniest bit derisive in some spots), but also I think with a lot of fascination about the local lore.

As is the case with all good longform essays, this story touches on so many things. But I think most prominently, it highlights the very human need to situate ourselves in a long and interesting history as a way to explain our existence. Or at the very least, the need to find shreds of meaning in our current situation. Why else would people conjure myths about an otherwise unassuming highway?

Long, but in hee signature way, Taffy makes this a very enjoyable reading experience. It took me 20 minutes of focused reading.

📰 Bad News | The Atlantic, $

I made myself promise (to no one in particular) that I’d go lighter on the outright election-related stories because I know you guys are already probably inundated with that. But I couldn’t help it! So if you’re also on a mini break from all of that, feel free to skip this.

But if you’re interested in some media critique, then this might be good for you. And when I say “good,” I don’t mean that it’s this thinkpiece that is necessarily good or that it makes incisive arguments—just that it raises some important talking points that are always worth voicing out. And I guess it’s a decent launching-pad, too, for further research into the matter.

The reason I’m putting it on this week’s list, though, is because I think it might help you spark some smart discussions.

I personally felt like the article was too ready to point the finger at other things (bogeymen, I like to say)—misinformation, Russia, far-right influencers. And while all of those things are definitely part of the problem, I think there’s also a need for the press (as it were) to be frank about its honestly very severe shortcomings in recent months (years). And that it needs to grapple and address that as publicly and with as much fervor as it does its finger-pointing. Maybe that’s how we can regain some trust.

Not long. Maybe 20 minutes, distractions included.

❤️‍🔥 Addicted to Love: How Dating Apps ‘Exploit’ Their Users | The Guardian, Free

The Guardian always puts out strong journalism, even in cases like these where they’re not really breaking anything new or earth-shattering.

I mean, pretty much anyone who’s been on any dating app can tell you that it’s kind of a hell-hole. Like a run-down seedy bar full of the dregs of society. And I say this as someone who spent years on the apps. It’s very obvious, too, that dating apps are more like games than actual matchmakers. The design isn’t subtle at all.

So I guess it’s good that an outfit as big as The Guardian is finally calling them out on it, plus with backing from many experts, many of whom agree that the dating apps work functionally like online gambling. That should help advocate groups to build the case for better regulation—though I have to admit that I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Not too long and can feel slow in some spots, especially if you think that none of this is new. Might take you 25 to 30 minutes.

✈️ I Feel Most at Home When I'm Farthest From Home | Trying!, Free

Trying! is a relatively young Beehiiv newsletter (not unlike TLR) where writer Matt Gross—he calls himself a “relapsed journalist,” which I think is a genius label—dips back into writing with daily pieces.

Won’t lie: I was skeptical at first. Why, I thought, would I want to read a stranger’s writing on a daily basis? But then I gave his stuff a shot and I must admit that he proved me wrong. These daily posts of his feel like ramblings of some sort—and I mean that in the absolute best way. Some impeccably written ramblings of a man who you know spends a lot of time in his brain.

Matt’s prose is punchy and quick and not at all dragging. The subjects of his posts are, admittedly, a bit all over the place, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The pieces to me feel like when you’re alone and let your mind wander and meander until it finds itself in some pretty interesting places. Only this time, it’s actually coherent and really well-executed. Can’t say the same for my ramblings, that’s for sure.

Definitely go give his content a peek!

Not long at all. Can definitely use these posts as sort of palate cleansers in between the bigger, novella-type longform articles. Maybe 10 minutes tops.

Thanks for reading! Please, please reach out if you have feedback, suggestions, or questions.

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! 👋