Presented by

Hi 👋 

No, this week’s edition isn’t late. It’s part of new changes coming to TLR.

I know it’s been just over two months since we launched, and I probably shouldn’t be too restless with the changes. But oh well. How about let’s chalk it up to growing pains?

Anyway, as you might have guessed, the newsletter will now arrive on Mondays. I figured it wasn’t too smart (or nice) to ask people to check their e-mails on Sundays. I’m sure you all get more than enough of your inboxes during the work week.

This way, with the Monday send schedule, I might be able to help you find a longform story to kick the week off, or to keep you company on that first dreaded commute of the week.

Nothing else will change, though! I’ll still send you a list of some of the best non-fiction writing, and TLR will still help you look for your next longread.

Another exciting thing this week: Our first sponsor! Thanks to Beehiiv for seeing the potential of TLR 🥳

Happy reading and see you again next Monday!

One long read…

There was no way for me to not make this our spotlight story of the week. I’m sure it’s probably crossed your radars too because it went viral on so many of my online circles this week, and many of the journalists and scientists I follow pushed it so hard.

So if you were on the fence about reading it, let this be your sign.

With all of that said, I still don’t quite know how feel about the story. Some people online have pointed out (maybe rightly) that it reads like a character assassination piece and others have insisted (maybe rightly, as well) on keeping Andrew Huberman’s personal life separate from his public-facing work.

I’m not sure if I agree with those, though, especially when Huberman can leverage his huge public persona and his well-trained wellness blather to fool women and colleagues—and millions of people across the internet.

I don’t think separating the artist from his art—or in this case, the podcaster from his platform—quite works if the platform helps the podcaster also moonlight as a cheater, liar, abuser, and peddler of dangerous pseudoscience.

Speaking of pseudoscience… that to me is much more the point than Huberman’s personal life.

I find it extra offensive and concerning that he uses his degree and Stanford connection—as well as his podcast guests—to give his potentially misleading recommendations a scientific sheen.

No one should be able to use their PhD powers to lend legitimacy to supplements that are at best ineffective and at worst actively harmful.

This essay from Slate puts it quite well:

🕓 Together, these two stories could take a bit over 2 hours, including distractions.

… and then some

1 - The U.S. Government Defended the Overseas Business Interests of Baby Formula Makers. Kids Paid the Price. | ProPublica, Free

This hit my anger management issues so hard. The work ProPublica did was incredibly thorough and revealing, which I found to be very impressive—but also very infuriating. How come the U.S. can flex its political muscle to derail good-faith policy efforts in other countries (and scientifically sound recommendations in international bodies)?

🕓 This is a long one, but only took me maybe 45 minutes. Apparently rage is a good motivator for me to read.

2 - The Whistleblower | The Outlaw Ocean Project, Free

Another incredible investigation (I’m realizing just now that I read a lot of investigative stories this week. Might reserve some of them for the coming editions) with really good visuals. This one will make you more skeptical of the claims in your food’s packaging.

Also: Ian Urbina, the executive director of The Outlaw Ocean Project, wrote a book, after which the non-profit was named. It’s also a very good read.

🕓 This might take a little bit under an hour.

3 - The Lifeblood of the AI Boom | The Atlantic, $

If you’ve been following TLR, you’d know that AI has been on my mind a lot. I used to be firmly against it, but now I’d like to think that I’ve cooled down a bit. I’m still not completely sold on it, but I’m able to approach it with much more curiosity now. This recommendation is part of that. I’m excited to see how the conversations around AI will change in the coming months (years?) to include its hardware needs and environmental burden.

🕓 Not particularly long. Maybe 30 minutes tops.

4 - The Groundhog Watchers | Nautilus, Free

At face value, this is a heartwarming story about two people falling in love with very cute (if not unorthodox) rat-like creatures. And even just for that, reading this is already very much worth your time. But really, I think this is also a story about science: its gaps and limitations, and its often-insular, overprotective attitude over the generation of knowledge.

🕓 Also not a long story. Maybe 45 minutes? Shorter if you’re drawn to cute animals.

5 - Are Evidence-Based Medicine and Public Health Incompatible? | Undark, Free

Speaking of science, gaps, and being overprotective, here’s a story about a surprisingly large fissure between two ostensibly connected fields of study—and their competing claims over which has the proper purview over which knowledge. As someone who communicates science to the public, I found this story very frustrating. This was especially the case during the pandemic, when different fields of medical expertise would squabble with each other, only making people trust them less.

🕓 This is a big story, but as I told you, rage drives my reading habits. It only took me 30 to 45 minutes to finish this.

6 - Promethea Unbound | The Atavist, $ (if you’ve read more than three of their stories)

Every week, I make it a point to dig into my archive of longreads. This week, I rediscovered this incredible profile from Mike Mariani, and it was quite the trip. Mike is a master writer: He will drum up feelings of wonder, pity, eye-roll annoyance, then fear and horror, followed by compassion and a flavor of sadness that I don’t quite have the words for.

🕓 This is a very long story and can be a bit difficult to read at some points. It might take much more than an hour, but trust me it’s worth it.

7 - Polluted Paradise | Eco-Business, Free

Travel and tourism kicked into an impossibly high gear after the world opened up from its pandemic-driven lockdowns. But for the Philippines, especially its most popular tourist spots, this has placed a very heavy burden on the environment and locals who rely on nature for their livelihood.

This story provides a really thorough look at this crisis, and how it has caught local authorities with their pants down.

🕓 Not particularly long. I’d say 30 to 40 minutes.

8 - Lots of People Make Money on Fanfic. Just Not the Authors | Wired, $

Is anyone here into fanfic? I admit that I’m not a big fan of the genre, but I’ve been trying to expand my reading horizons recently and have been meaning to try it out. I stumbled upon this story when researching about it. Now that I know that there’s a very passionate fanfic community—and this underlying tension of people making money off of their work—I’m suddenly more interested in it. Maybe I’m just subconsciously attracted to the drama of it all 😅

🕓 Also not particularly long, but also not terribly gripping. Maybe 45 minutes to an hour.

Quit sending emails like a dinosaur.

It’s the year 2024 and all the top newsletters are using beehiiv.

beehiiv was created by the same early Morning Brew employees who scaled their daily email to over 4 million subscribers. And now every newsletter on beehiiv has access to the same tools and winning formula.

So what exactly does beehiiv offer?

• World-class growth tools like the referral program and recommendation network

• Monetization via the beehiiv Ad Network and premium subscriptions (i.e. beehiiv helps you get paid)

• Seamless content creation with a sleek collaborative editor

• Best-in-class inbox deliverability of 98.7%

• Oh and it’s the most affordable by a mile…

Take your newsletter to the next level — get started for free.

Around the world

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

1 - A huge ship rammed into the Baltimore bridge, causing the iconic bridge to collapse.

2 - The first patient to ever receive a brain implant from Musk’s Neuralink used it to stay up all night playing Civilization 6. Sure. Why not?
+ Neuralink made its first implant earlier this year.

3 - This is some Final Destination s***: A man in Japan died after his jacket got caught in an escalator.
+ Okay, it’s not actually as gruesome as it sounds. He fainted and was declared DOA at the hospital. The exact cause of death is unknown.

4 - More alarming news for bad sleepers out there. Just two nights of fitful sleep can make you feel like you’ve aged years.

5 - For anime appreciators like me: ‘isekai’ has finally made its way into the Oxford dictionary.

6 - Waiters and waitresses race through the streets of Paris while balancing a tray with a croissant, a cup of coffee, and a glass of water. Is that not the most French thing ever?

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, please feel free to share The Lazy Reader with friends or family who you think might want to join us in reading more.

Until next Sunday! 👋