Hi 👋 

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

I was about to complain about the news cycle again, but I think that’s just how it’s going to be until after the elections, maybe even until next year. Maybe we just need to hunker down and bear it. No use being whiny about something I have no control over.

Good thing we can always find a nice escape in longform stories 😉

Thankfully, the stories were good again this week. We have some really interesting picks this week:

• This heavy (but cathartic) essay about a mother’s death and the long, hard path to healing. From the loss and from decades-old trauma.

• This article, which is sort of a hybrid between a first-person essay and an investigation, looking at psychiatric experiments than Nazi-inspired doctors used to conduct on young kids.

• This deep dive into the enterprise of, and science behind, taking a dump in outer space.

• Another science story, this time digging into when and where the next big earthquake could strike.

• And so much more!! 💪

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

ORRR you can also fill out this super quick survey 🙏 It’ll only take a few minutes at most. I promise! And it’ll be a huge help to us in improving The Lazy Reader.

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Happy reading and see you again next Monday!

Story in Spotlight

I absolutely adore this type of experiential reporting—especially when used in hard-hitting investigations.

Reuters applied this approach really well here. To see how easy it is for randos on the street to cook up fentanyl, its reporters scoured the internet for sellers of the drug’s chemical ingredients. They also turned to popular online platforms to purchase the tools and other equipment needed to actually make fentanyl from its chemical building blocks and press the final product into its pill form.

I understand that what Reuters did here could raise some thorny ethical questions.

🤔 Should reporters go as far as buying chemicals (some of which aren’t strictly legal) just for a story? Did they cross a line by willingly allowing restricted chemicals be shipped to them? And what about the sales agents? Is it okay that the reporters essentially lied and baited these salespeople to purchase chemicals that, in many cases, were outright illegal in their respective countries? Would this be equally okay if the sales agents were, say, citizens of the U.S. or fellow developed countries?

(Reuters, too, knows that their methods will raise more than a few eyebrows. That’s why they spent a couple of paragraphs and a few errant lines here and there justifying their actions).

Regardless of the ethics of their reporting, what Reuters found was concerning. Chemicals that can easily be used to synthesize fentanyl were very readily available online. The reporters didn’t even have to hide in the dark web. U.S. customs, too, was very lenient in its screening of shipped packages, and other enforcement agencies appeared to be relatively powerless to do anything about the fentanyl precursors 😠

While this story was explicitly written to highlight the globalized nature of the opioid crisis, I think it was good that Reuters (intentionally or otherwise) also gave some space to ponder domestic culpability.

Of course it’s important to map out the international trade lines of drug chemicals and work collaboratively cross-border to stem their flow. But I think it’s just as valuable (if not more so) to address the addiction at home, and to hold accountable the people (or companies) that are responsible for keeping this addiction going. Cough Purdue cough. Cough Sacklers cough.

But maybe I’m just rambling at this point.

Read this story. Maybe this is something you can consider when voting later this year. This could take you 40 minutes.

The Longform List

💥 The Bullet in My Mother’s Head | Esquire, Free

I really wanted to make this our spotlight of the story. And if you read it, it’s very easy to see why. After his mom’s death, the writer investigates her assault and attempted murder that happened decades earlier. The result is an up-close and very heart-felt look at how trauma can weave itself into the lives of families—and how one man sorts through the grief of losing a parent. There’s one particular scene toward the end that made me misty-eyed. I’m sure you won’t miss it.

If it wasn’t clear yet, this is a very heavy read, but it comes with a very satisfying payoff.

Pretty long, but also very beautiful. Definitely find time for it this week. Maybe 30 minutes, but take your time with it to really savor its emotions.

👧🏻 Behind a Locked Door | The New Yorker, $

This one has been on my to-be-read list for months now, but I’ve been deliberately putting it off because I was intimidated by the subject.

It turns out I wasn’t wrong at all—this is a very intense story, following the hazy memories of one woman who, it turns out, was experimented on by a Nazi-era psychiatrist. There is so much to unpack here, not least of which is clear hatred with which one branch of science used to regard children. Thankfully, the personal story of the main character (a very strong woman) traces a very fulfilling arc.

Very long and can get pretty heavy in many spots. I took around an hour to read through it, counting the breaks I took to breathe.

☎️ Men Are Scamming Crisis Hotlines to Masturbate on Calls | MEL Magazine, Free

Crisis hotlines are crucial to a country’s overall mental health infrastructure, but in most cases, as in the U.S., they run on very low budgets and rely on a large network of volunteers (most of whom are women). So it’s extra frustrating to learn that some creeps (almost all of whom are men) take advantage of these people and harass them on calls. To make things worse, the people running these hotlines don’t seem to care too much—or they’re largely powerless to do anything about it.

Not too long, but definitely difficult to read through. This one also touches on some sensitive topics, so please be careful when reading. Could take 30 ish minutes.

🦅 Inside California’s Freedom-Loving, Bible-Thumping Hub of Hard Tech | Vanity Fair, $

As it is, I’m already not the biggest fan of Silicon Valley or any of the other tech epicenters—not just in the U.S. And somehow, this story was able to drum up an even higher level of revulsion in me. The writer paints a picture of a very conservative and right-wing community that is also exceedingly self-centered, at least enough to think that it holds the entire destiny of the U.S. in its hands. I don’t think that’s something I can throw my admiration behind.

Reasonably long. If you like to hate-read like I do, this one’s going to fly by very quickly. It took me 15 ish minutes.

🪬 The Demon Slayers | Harper’s Magazine, Free

I recently picked something up from #BookTok: “More vibes than plot.” I think that perfectly describes this piece, which I had trouble following in some spots, admittedly. Maybe I was trying too hard to find a clear linear narrative running through the story. But now that I think about it, the strength of this story is probably in its descriptions of the massive exorcism event. If that’s the case, then the writer did a fantastic job.

Not too long, actually. But it took me 40 to 45 ish minutes to read because my confusion with it slowed me down a little in the beginning.

💩 Pooping on the Moon Is a Messy Business | WIRED, $

Ah yes. Shit and space travel. Is there a better combo? WIRED pulled this off really well, turning what would easily lend itself to giggly storytelling and immature jokes into a thoroughly serious and scientific narrative. And deservedly so, too, because it’s clear that the entire enterprise of pooping on the moon—despite how silly it sounds—is a highly complex matter. The stakes are high too, supposedly, because countries are always trying to one-up each other in terms of reaching new cosmic heights.

Very long, but honestly interesting enough to keep you hooked throughout. I think this one took me 40 minutes.

⚠️ The Enigmatic Earthquake Hotspot in America’s Heartland | Undark, Free

I remember reading years ago a story about the impending ‘Big One’ — the prophesied massive earthquake that will rip through America and rack up untold numbers in deaths and damages. I was reminded of that story all throughout reading this one. The main difference is that Undark took a decidedly more scientific approach with this story, diving deep into how earthquakes originate in the first place—and how scientist can maybe use this knowledge to predict where the next big quake will happen and when.

But, as is standard in the field of seismology, predicting earthquakes always seems to prove to be impossible.

Not too long, but you might get bogged down by all the technical details. I took 20 ish minutes, but it might require more commitment from people unfamiliar with the subject.

💰 Inside the Harvard Business School Ponzi Scheme | The Intelligencer, $

This is definitely a compelling story of a Ponzi scheme that’s infiltrated the highest echelons of the finance world. But—if I’m being completely honest—there’s something about the ‘rich person scamming rich people’ angle that I just find slightly bland. Good thing this is really well-written, so it easily held my attention.

That said, I do wish the writer explored a bit more why the legal response to this crime was so muted, especially when the scheme would have triggered lawsuits upon lawsuits if, say, someone who wasn't as rich or powerful committed it.

Really long, but it has the trappings of a True Crime story, so it isn’t too hard to read. Maybe 30 minutes.

🧪 What is it Like to Attend a Predatory Conference? | Nature, Free

Elsewhere in science, predatory event organizers are scamming young and upcoming scientists by arranging fraudulent conferences. Their victims, often from poor and disadvantaged backgrounds, pay excessive fees for the chance to present their research, only to end up discovering that the conference is only slightly related to their field—or worse, that there’s no conference at all.

The most worrying part for me is that this just lends to the overall erosion of public trust in science. How am I supposed to tell whether this specific conference in an expert’s list of accolades is legitimate?

Not too long and honestly not too difficult to read through, too. Probably 10 minutes.

Around the world

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

1 - On needless wars:
+ Netanyahu spoke before the U.S. Congress last week … and brought Elon Musk along as his guest.
+ His speech was everything you’d expect a war-monger to say, denouncing pro-Palestine protests across the U.S. and promising ultimate victory.
+ Meanwhile, the newly minted Labour government in the U.K. has dropped its challenge to the ICC’s arrest warrants.
+ Russia is offering up to $22,000 for Moscow residents to take up arms and fight in Ukraine.
+ China is taking its place as a potential peacemaker in global conflicts by hosting delegations from Ukraine and Palestine.

2 - Typhoon Gaemi, currently one of the biggest environmental calamities, is ripping through Asia.
+ It left large swathes of the Philippines under floodwater and killed more than 30 people.
+ The typhoon then moved on to Taiwan and is now battering China.

3 - A new class of antibiotic drug—which might be difficult to develop resistance to—could help humanity fight the rising tide of superbugs.

4 - A bit of fun news: Seniors in Japan are taking up a hip-hop-inspired dance exercise.

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! 👋