Hi 👋

Welcome back to The Lazy Reader, your weekly source of top longform reads from across the Web ✨

I took a bit of a break from work last week. I know, I know—long overdue, and much-deserved. I didn’t do anything particularly exciting with my time (I wanted to, though. I had grand plans of going off-the-grid for a few days in a remote resort or something, but I couldn’t be bothered to arrange all that).

I just rotted at home for a few days, cooked myself some really good meals that I’d never have the time to prepare otherwise, and played some video games. Most importantly, I did a crapload of reading. I was finally able to tackle the longest story on my TBR after months of putting it off, and I knocked out a few chapters of this book that I’m currently stuck on. (It’s long and tough and the pacing is off, but I’m determined to see it through).

Many of the pieces I read during my break made it to this week’s list. Hope you enjoy them!

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

• The racist roots of statistics.

• The new god of fantasy and science fiction.

•  Prison profiteers and inmates left for dead.

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 to 1440 Media for supporting this week’s newsletter! Please, please consider clicking their ad link after the fold below. It’s free, really easy, and it helps me out a ton. Thank you so much! 🙏

Story in Spotlight

I’ve had this on my TBR pile for months now, but I’ve been putting it off because the prospect of reading it has been so daunting.

And as soon as you get started, you’ll know why: It’s exceptionally long. Probably the longest story I’ve shared here so far, not counting series. The subject itself isn’t for light reading, too. If you live in the U.S. and have had even just the slightest bit of interaction with their healthcare system, then this will most likely be triggering for you.

But this was a very worthwhile investment of my time. The complexity of healthcare pricing is well worth the intimidating lenght of the piece. Not once did I feel like any of the vignettes that Steven Brill used to illustrate his points were unnecessary.

And his points hit you hard in the face. As someone who lives in a poor country—where a single U.S. dollar is equivalent to several dozens of our local currency—the figures that Steven listed out here made my head spin. Some of the bills here in this story would be more than enough to keep my comfortable for probably be a decade.

This story has a different layer of meaning for me, too, because I’ve been covering the medical industry for my day job for almost 10 years now, so I’m not entirely in the dark. I know a bit about these legal loopholes, money maneuvering and pricing plays that companies (and non-profits, apparently) pull to maximize their margins.

I know all about the health industry’s insincerity and duplicity: Claim that you’re in the business of healing people, of curing diseases, of saving lives, then turn around and leave your patients for dead just so you can sell your medicines or devices or services at absurd costs.

(I have to say: I did wonder, more than a handful of times, how accurately Steven was representing his data. Was he picking and choosing which bits to show us? Were his assumptions—of which there were many—fair to make? Or did he make those specifically to strengthen his arguments? Did an actual health economist look at his analysis?)

Like I said, very, very long. Set aside two hours at the very least. Maybe give yourself the grace of three hours, just so you have time to take quick breaks.

The Longform List

The Tuber | Outside Magazine, $

Loved this one. This piece got genuinely funny in many spots, which is difficult to pull off. I remember a writing instructor from years ago telling me that making readers laugh is much, much harder than making them cry or angry or wistful. And the writer here pulled that off really well, while also knowing when to pull back to let the essay itself take the lead.

Speaking of the essay—it’s not exactly what I would call profound, though I may have missed the point. I didn’t take much away from it by way of a life lesson, but I don’t think that’s the point anyway.

My Life Cleanse: One Month Inside L.A.'s Cult of Betterness | GQ, $

I’ve said this many times before here, but: It’s fascinating to see how the wealthy spend their free time and excess money. In that sense, this one was a real fun—if not funny—reading experience.

I will admit: There’s a lot of skepticism from my end about what the writer calls this “cult of betterness.” Much of that comes from how many of these wellness practices are just shameless and cheap copycats of actual cultural and meaningful traditions from different religions across Asia and Africa. Then there’s also just the utter absurdity of many of these practices.

Odd Caliber | Truly*Adventurous, Free

Happy to have Truly*Adventurous back on the newsletter, though it still sucks that they aren’t actively publishing anymore.

In many ways, this story represents that classic longform experience: A story that dives into one larger-than-life event in history, which for one reason or another had faded into obscurity. To a certain degree, it’s impressive how Truly*Adventurous is able to put out these deep, dynamic stories through mostly archival and secondary research—though I guess at some point, it can feel a bit too sterile not having direct quotes in the piece.

The King of X | TexasMonthly, $

A quintessential American experience—partying and drugs. This story picks out one particular moment in Texas’ history, during one of those times when the state struggled to reconcile its outwardly conservative image with the debauchery that filled its underbelly. This story profiles the person who positioned himself at the heart of this ideological conflict, and who for years was at the forefront of Texas’ ecstasy industry—making untold number of dollars in the process.

The Suspects Wore Louboutins | Vanity Fair, $

Speaking of things that are quintessentially American: This one from Vanity Fair directly addresses the obsession with high society and status and appearances, and the extreme lengths that people are willing to go through to satisfy their avarice.

Unlike most of the current True Crime stories, this one doesn’t build off of the mystery or the tension that come with an unsolved case. Instead, this one really leans into its materialistic themes, which in my opinion highlighted how absurd the motivations for these thefts are.

A PTSD Therapy ‘Seemed Too Good to Be True’ | The Atlantic, $

This reads like a cookie-cutter science story—fine overall, informative and important, but nothing special. Unfortunate, given the relatively prestigious position that The Atlantic holds in the popular imagination. They could have done something more with this. The underlying tech is, admittedly, a bit niche and odd, but is nevertheless interesting enough to carry a hefty feature on its own. PTSD itself as a subject also has a lot of complexities that I think could have been explored much further. Instead, we got a milquetoast article that settles for hitting the usual beats.

But okay fine, I might be nitpicking. I still admit that it was a fine experience overall, and I picked up a new thing or two.

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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! 👋