👶🏼 The Children who Were Reborn

PLUS: Colonial pain, AI prophets, and the case for giving up on flooded grounds

Author

The Lazy Reader
May 06, 2024

Hi 👋 

Welcome back to TLR, where we dig into some of the best longform writing across the internet 🤓

Our list this week is on the lighter side (been feeling sick the past few days, sorry!), but the stories are deep, thoughtful and really well-written. You’ll still enjoy them for sure.

There are quite a few AI stories on this week’s list (not on purpose, I promise), including one that looks at how some people have been using AI to answer their most profound questions about life, and another that uncovers the “digital sweatshops” that power the tech.

Plus a trio of in-depth and infuriating investigations: One searches for the truth behind organic, cruelty-free milk, another warns about changes in a government policy that could poison our food, and the last reveals how corporations work to choke the planet.

I’m aware that many of the recommendations this week are behind paywalls (more than usual). If you need help accessing any of them, please reach out and I’d be glad to help you!

In any case, as with last week, please let me know what you think of the list this week by voting in the poll below. 🙏

And we’re still trying to grow the newsletter! If you like what you read, please consider helping us grow by sharing it to your friends, colleagues and family! 🫶

Happy reading and see you again next Monday!

One long read…

The Children Who Remember Their Past Lives

What happens when your toddler is haunted by memories that aren’t hers?

This is quite the story.

I consider myself to be pretty well-read. As someone who studied and works in science, I’m also pretty confident that I’ve seen my fair share of unusual and borderline-unbelievable natural phenomena.

But this one still knocked the air out of me.

There apparently are a couple thousand kids in the world that are born with memories from a past life. And the writer makes it very clear that these are legitimate memories, not just pretend play (which is normal for every kid—and maybe for adult writers with newsletters).

There are some fairly shocking, hair-raising developments in this story that I won’t spoil for you, but suffice it to say that I strongly recommend you make time to read this this week.

I also just want to use a bit of space to give the writer her props. She was able to track down the exceedingly small number of families that have dealt with this very specific, very sensitive phenomenon and, probably more impressively, convinced them to go on the record.

AND she was able to turn around such a compelling piece. Really, really incredlbe work from the writer.

Not too long, not too difficult. Maybe an hour tops.

… and then some

🐄 The Truth About Organic Milk | The Atlantic, $

I have very complicated feelings about these opaque, untruthful product-labelling practices. This story helps explain a bit of that. You and I and everyone else should be able to make informed decisions about the products we spend our money on, but companies are often willing to tell the most bare-faced lies just to maximize margins.

A long story, and difficult to read, too, especially if you have a soft spot for animals. Easily over an hour.

Yet another banger from NOÉMA. There are some really strong arguments here about being smarter and less prideful about the human frontier, as it were, and I have to say that I agree. There has to be some reasonable limit to our expansion (and consumption) as a species, and maybe it’s better that we figure out what that limit is. Soon.

This is a long and difficult piece, especially because it gets very technical in many places. It took me more than an hour and a couple of breaks.

Just in case you need more awful news to fuel your rage (if not existential dread), then this one should be a great fit for you. Against best scientific evidence, the EPA has decided to rely on at-best shaky cell-culture evidence to assess the safety of pesticides for use in human food. I understand the concerns about animal testing, but I’m not completely convinced that the EPA’s decision wasn’t mostly the result of corporate strongarming.

This one reads a lot like a news-feature story, meaning it’s not too long and not too difficult to follow. Maybe 30 minutes at most, if you stay focused.

🤕 My Enduring Pain | aeon, Free

I’m not typically too into essays, but this one was an incredible (and painful) read. Plus it dips its proverbial toes in medicine, which is always good in my book. The writer makes the case for generational colonial trauma as a legitimate medical cause for the shared pain among formerly colonized peoples. Modern science, unfortunately, not only glosses over this trauma but even plays blind to this pain.

Another long and tough read, and gets really heavy in some places. Might take 1 hour, including distractions.

This is one those stories that make me feel hopeless about the rise of AI. I initially thought that the writers were making an argument that was too self-indulgent, but on second pass, I think I now get where they’re coming from. AI is eroding the humanness of the internet, which is what made the cyberspace so charming and useful in the beginning.

A relatively quick read. Maybe 45 minutes, tops.

With all the elections scheduled this year, I think this is a very timely article. But if you read last week’s edition, you’ll know that I think misinformation is a more complicated issue than what most thinktanks make it out to be. I agree that fake news, when wielded by enemy foreign governments, is a threat to democracy. But, as this article points out, sometimes “misinformation” campaigns tap into legitimate grievances. In those cases, I think solving these underlying problems is more urgent than tackling fake news… no?

Not too long or difficult. Probably 30 minutes at most.

This is the third of three investigations that I’m recommending this week—and personally what I think is the most infuriating. I live in one of the Global South countries that receive shiploads of plastic waste from the Global North every year, and I experience first-hand the environmental problems that this causes. And it’s almost insulting that corporations consider us as afterthoughts, if not necessary collateral damage, in their quest for higher profits.

A long and in-depth investigation, which can also be tough to take in some places. Might take you well over an hour.

This is one of those stories that look at how poor people are used and exploited for leisures that people in rich countries enjoy. This one hits very close to home because I used to be part of this very predatory, abusive online industry. So I understand the mix of desperation (to take awfully paid jobs) and indignation (of being unpaid) and even more despration (to not be able to leave).

Not too long, but might be a bit difficult if you resonate with the characters. I’d say 35 minutes.

I’m just now realizing that I read a lot about AI the past week. I didn’t do it on purpose, but maybe AI has just been on my mind so much. And why wouldn’t it, when apparently some people use it as a substitute for holy scriptures? I’m not a faithful person, but I can imagine how problematic this can become.

Not a long read, and honestly gets dragging at times. Maybe 1 hour at most.

This is one of thise borderline-unbelievable stories that, if it happened to me, would definitely throw me for a loop. The author did a good job, too, of really sticking to her metaphor of pirates, with a few fun turns-of-phrases sprinkled throughout the piece. If I may nitpick, though: I think the prose was a bit awkward in some places. But that doesn’t take away from the story.

Not too long and it flows easily. 30 minutes tops. 

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Around the world

Here are some of the most important/interesting/infuriating news bits from around the world last week:

1 - A record-breaking heatwave sweeps through Southeast Asia.
+ Some cities in the Philippines’ Metro Manila had to suspend classes due to the heat.

2 - Iraq counted its third death of a social media personality. TikTok star Um Fahad was shot last week, amid an increasingly conservative Iraqi society.

3 - A new exposé from the BBC revealed that hundreds of people, including children, received HIV- and hepatitis C-infected blood as part of a broad hemophilia experiment in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

4 - International Workers’ Day happened last week and in celebration, Oxfam published a report showing that while shareholder dividends have climbed through the years, wages have remained largely stagnant.

5 - Even more AI reading, and this time it’s a weird one: An AI priest approves the baptism of a baby in Gatorade. The Catholic group behind the AI priest deactivated it (him?) soon after.

6 - In a first for science: An orangutan was spotted using medicinal herbs to treat its own wounds. I swear we’re not the only intelligent beings on this planet, and we need to be more respectful of that.

Thanks for reading! Please, please reach out if you have feedback, suggestions, or questions. I know some of the stories I recommend might be behind paywalls, and maybe I can help you with access to those, too!

Also, I’d appreciate it so much if you help me grow by sharing The Lazy Reader with friends or family who you think might also enjoy a good longform story 🫶

Until next Monday! 👋

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