Hi 👋 

Welcome back to our weekly reading list of the best longform journalist across the Web ✨

I’m happy to report that I seem to be finally getting over this annoying reading slump I’ve been in (I hope it wasn’t obvious! I tried to keep our TLR lists as interesting as I could.)

Friends and colleagues tell me it’s probably burnout, and I guess it makes sense. After all, I really jumped into the deep end with this newsletter. Before 2024, I’d spent years away from longform journalism, and my hiatus from books was even longer. Pretty much the only hefty reading I was doing was for reporting assignments for clients.

And then all of a sudden, I was going through at least 10 articles per week (much, much more now) to find good ones to feature here. My neurons were shocked, to say the absolute least.

But if it’s burnout, then how come the cure appears to heve been more reading? I think I hit a lucky streak of good story after good story, which has felt very good and rewarding. Plus I recently started a new book (I’ve been dipping my toes back into fiction on the side), which has been extremely fun. Now I’m feeling extra driven, and I’m noticing that I can stay more focused on the thing I’m reading.

Anyway, all of that to say: I’m very happy about our list this week. You know I’m going to share with you those good stories I talked about. Here’s what you can expect:

• Another Langewiesche classic, this time about a top Brazilian gang.

• This undercover investigation into a leading hate and “race science” group.

• A warning about how ephemeral everything on the Internet is—and how we might lose our data without even knowing it.

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Happy reading and see you again next Monday!

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Story in Spotlight

I just want to make it clear that you can easily, readily switch this story out of the spotlight for a couple of others in this week’s list—that’s how strong our picks this week are.

There are other more hard-hitting stories on this list, and some, in my opinion, are better-written, better-reported. Some also make more insightful and timely critiques on the state of our world today, while others are just straight up more interesting, more fascinating stories.

But none have this much heart and compassion and strength. That’s true, too, for most of the TLR editions I’ve put out. This is probably one of the (if not the) most heart-wrenching, heart-rending, but also kind and strong and raw stories I’ve read since starting this newsletter.

That’s probably why it won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. Absolutely well-deserved.

At face value, this story seems to just recount the morbid, gruesome facts of a morbid, gruesome attack on a couple who was very much in love and very much looking to spend a lifetime together. But at its core—and as the title suggests—the story is an ode to the strength of the sole survivor of the attack. She has lost her partner, suffered severe injuries and most likely has more than a lifetime’s worth of trauma. And yet she insists on standing in front of a jury, a judge, the media to relive the worst day of her life and pick at wounds, bare her shame and pain for everyone to gawk at. All in the hope of putting the criminal away for life and prevent something similar from happening to anyone else in the future.

And this article captures that massive feat of strength perfectly and with the utmost respect and compassion.

Definitely definitely make time for this story.

Not too long, but a really difficult read. If it wasn’t clear yet, this is a very triggering story, so please be careful while reading this. I’d set aside maybe 1 hour for this, maybe more so you can take breaks in between.

The Longform List

⛓️ City of Fear | Vanity Fair, $

Another William Langewiesche banger! And it would have easily made the top spot any other week. But as I said, this edition is stacked.

In this story, William takes a seemingly one-off (but still catastrophic) mob attack and dives extremely deep into it. In the process, he bears out in excruciating detail the criminal underworld of Brazil, tracing one of the country’s most feared—and respected—gangs from its jailhouse beginnings and through many, many conflicts with the state. William’s genius prose is on maximum display here, too, as usual.

There’s so much I want to say about this story. But at the moment, what stands out the most to me is that while this story is obviously an extreme case, it will be largely recognizable to anyone who lives in any slum area across the planet. For many poor countries (and many developed nations, too), governments work only as far as urban centers go; in the periphery, it’s the criminal rings that reign, and most people have learned to either live with them or to even enjoy their pseudo-rule.

Very, very long. But a completely amazing reading experience. Allot 1 hour and 30 minutes for this, at most.

🌉 The Woman on the Bridge | The Cut, $

This is one of the most compelling crime-slash-spy-slash-love-slash-hate story I’ve ever read.

And that confusing descriptor should draw you in, not push you away. Because while there are so many things going on in this story—so much so that I struggle to find a genre for it—it all somehow just works. More than anything, I guess, that’s a testament to how well Sarah Weinman reported and wrote and structured the article.

And once you read this story, you’ll realize just how much of a feat that is. She expertly weaves together the life stories of two very complicated, interesting and dishonest people, layering innocent half-truths with sinister lies. The result is a really tight, action-packed story that will have absolutely no trouble keeping you hooked.

All of that said, I do feel like this is one of those rare stories that would have benefited from being longer. There’s definitely a lot more to Mike’s story, and I wish we could have seen that part of the narrative fleshed out. Though maybe that could be its own standalone story.

Not overly long, especially for how big the story is. I’d say maybe 40 minutes.

😡 Race Science Inc. | HOPE Not Hate, Free

Just so you know how much I liked this story: I spent the entire week last week believing firmly that this would be our spotlight pick for this edition. I wasn’t even entertaining the idea that it was possible for any other story to change that.

(But then of course The Stranger proved me wrong.)

I don’t think I was completely off-the-mark, though. This is a wholly impressive investigation, complete with an undercover journalist and what I would describe as an entrapment operation. The writer infiltrated a really influential hate group—which also purports to conduct “legitimate” science that elevates one race over another—to uncover the depth and breadth of its operations. In the process, the story reveals that many well-known and rich and powerful figures are involved with the group, which points to a really disturbing thought: There are bigots all around us.

And yes, HOPE Not Hate isn’t technically a media organization. It’s a non-profit, which means it’s not strictly speaking unbiased or “objective.” And I accept that critique, but I think it’s a non-starter. Especially when it comes to the subject of hate.

Very long. But also very important. If this is something that interests you, carve out 1 hour (likely more) for it this week.

⛰️ This Russian Family Lived Alone in the Siberian Wilderness for 40 Years, Unaware of World War II or the Moon Landing | Smithsonian Magazine, Free

This one is a relatively quick but really enjoyable read. It follows a team of scientists who, while looking for potential oil sources out in the Siberian forests, stumbles upon a hermitic family that has removed itself from modern society for generations.

The story of how they came to live in severe isolation is fascinating on its own, but I think the true strength of this story is in how difficult self-subsistence can be—and how infectious (both in the good and bad sense of the word) modernity is.

The way this story paints how the family members reacted to and benefited from (and suffered from) the small bits of technology that the scientists introduced into their lives also presents a good prompt for reflection: How do we react to new tech? What can we learn from this family? And what do we make of the ending?

Not too long, and very enjoyable. Maybe 20 minutes tops.

🍜 Nestlé’s Half-Billion-Dollar Noodle Debacle in India | Fortune, $

Lowkey, Fortune has been doing great longform work in the corporate space, looking at how business intersects with human life. That’s not quite the case here, but that doesn’t mean that this story isn’t compelling. At its core, this is really an action-packed boardroom caper, which is a phrase that I never thought I’d say.

The story follows the fallout between Nestlé and Indian regulators after certain tests found elevated levels of toxic chemicals in the company’s noodles. The result is a hot mess of communication failures and corporate snobbishness that cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars. I found it really fun to watch from the sidelines.

All of that said, I didn’t appreciate how the story subtly painted India’s regulatory bodies as incapable. I understand that government agencies in the Third World (I hate this label) aren’t always the most cutting-edge, but they are the best that we have to safeguard our health. Plus I think it’s in the nature of regulatory work to be conservative and cautious, and that’s something that Nestlé should know well and accept.

Long, but not overly so. Though if business isn’t your speed, then you might find this boring. I finished this story in 40 minutes.

🕵🏻 Journalist or Russian Spy? The Strange Case of Pablo González | The Guardian, Free

This is a great article. As a fan of mysteries and crime and those types of stories, I really enjoyed this read. It was well-researched and well-written, and the narrative twists kept me hooked.

That said, I’m a bit torn about the subject of the story itself. Of course, not to condone doing spy work for murderous governments (quite the opposite, actually: I’m broadly opposed to any intelligence work), but isn’t what Pablo González did a common arrangement? It’s been extensively documented that the CIA makes use of journalists in their intelligence operations. And yet many of the journos that were instrumental in the US’s imperial designs have gone on to be powerful figures in the industry.

To me, this is a very existential problem for the Media. We say that we are defenders of democracy, and that democracy is crucial to our survival. But then we allow our people (and celebrate the practice, too!) to be used for decidedly undemocratic purposes. What gives?

Long. And it really raises some important questions about the Media. I might have done more introspection than usual, so I took longer to finish this, which I did in maybe 50 minutes.

🐮 This Is What Humane Slaughter Looks Like. Is It Good Enough? | Modern Farmer, Free

If you’re a long-time reader of TLR, you’ll know that I’m always on the lookout for good longform stories from more niche or trade outfits. That’s because they tend to have a deeper understanding of their specific areas, and their stories often have better insights and are more comfortable with nuance.

And this one—by Mac McClelland, who is an incredible writer regardless out publication—is a perfect example of that.

This story is fom 2013 and I think it’s one of the very first ones to really shine a critical (or at least skeptical) light on the agriculture industry’s standards on “humane” practices, particularly in terms of slaughter. And until now, I think it plays the central tension really well: For the most part, there is no humane way to kill a living creature, but even so, the way that farm cows are slaughtered can be even more compassionate than the way many, many humans die. Until what point can we push this rhetoric against meat-eating?

Not long at all, and a really easy read. Mac’s prose is always dynamic and quick. 20 minutes at most.

🌐 Raiders of the Lost Web | The Atlantic, $

This one struck me hard. And it really goes against that modern-day aphorism that the Internet remembers; that once you put something online, it’ll stay there forever.

Not so, apparently, and as a freelance writer whose clips are nearly 100% online, that terrifies me. I never really thought about it too deeply. At least, not in the way that this story illustrates. I always assumed that even if sites that I’ve written for fold, their old webpages would stay alive, and I’d always have access to proof of my work. Seems I was being too naive.

Because as this story shows, even highly popular, impactful, and well-regarded stories can be wiped off the face of the Internet. And, worse, we’re losing much more data than we’re saving, even with efforts of groups like the Internet Archive. This article was written in 2015 and even then, experts were already sounding the alarm. I can only imagine that the situation has gotten worse, especially since we’ve been uploading more and more information online, but we’ve not been investing in infrastructure to create a lasting, perpetual repository.

Not long. Might take you 30 minutes though.

📰 On the Ground With Syria's News Smugglers | New Republic, Free

I came into this story thinking that I would find disturbing, depressing parallels to today’s journalism situation in the various warfronts—particularly in Palestine and Ukraine.

And while I did see a bit of that, I found this story to be more of a feature and critique of citizen journalism in times of conflict. And I’m not sure that I completely appreciate that. My biggest gripe, I think, is that the writer takes issue that some of these media non-profits on the frontlines are driven by their own agendas, often reflecting that of their deep-pocketed backers. But… isn’t that true for all media organizations? The principles of journalism, as we’ve seen and continue to see, are extremely pliable to the whims of corporate leadership.

Meanwhile, there wasn’t nearly enough energy given to question why these citizen journalists are so underfunded. Or why they’re even needed in the first place. Or to give them their props for putting their bodies on the line just to keep the world informed.

I don’t know. This is undoubtedly an important story given the state of the world today (that’s the only reason that I’m still putting it on this list, actually), but I feel like the writer tried hard to look at what are in my opinion auxillary problems, while completely missing the big things.

Not too long. But honestly very frustrating to read—and not in the way that encourages rage reading. Took me 40 minutes.

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! 👋