Hi 👋 

Welcome back to The Lazy Reader, where we curate the best longform journalism across the internet ✨

This week’s list is just the tiniest bit shorter than usual. That’s because I made the amateur mistake of reading too many very-longform stories. The upside of that, though, is that you get all of those in this email 😉

It’s also been a very hectic work week for me, so I didn’t have the usual extra luxury time to read as much as I used to. But I think that’s true (or starting to become true) for everyone. The year-end hustle seems to be picking up.

In any case, here’s a peek at what you can expect in this week’s TLR:

• How modern medicine is built on the bodies—literally—of Nazi Germany’s victims.

• Hunting down the world’s most notorious computer killer.

• The U.S. ramps up its production of nuclear weapons—putting the world once more on a dangerous, dangerous path.

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

Happy reading and see you again next Monday!

Story in Spotlight

This was the first story I read last week and I just knew in the deepest parts of my being that I had to make this our spotlight story.

It’s raw and brutal and heart-breaking. Deeply emotional. And scary, too, especially once you realize that the writer is of a professional class. Not unlike me and you, I’d wager. Which means that we’re just a couple of misfortunes away from ending up where he is. And that’s not to make a cautionary tale of him—not at all!—but it’s more a critique and heavily frustrated look at how our economy is so unfairly stacked against most of us. How is it fair or moral or acceptable that the majority of us have no safety nets to catch us if we stumble?

But I digress.

The writer here paints a realistic and really painful picture of how it is to lose everything and be left with nothing else but your dog. Government welfare is laughably inadequate, law enforcement suddenly sees you as a target, the elements become more punishing, and your fellow people stop treating you like you’re human. This story says a lot about homelessness, but in a stroke of genius, the writer doesn’t actually explicitly state those points. He makes himself the example. A symbol of how society treats people who don’t have much.

This also made me think of how I treat homeless people I come across. And really makes me question my morals hard. If, like me, you enjoy a degree of comfort in your life, I hope this story inspires you to introspect a little bit, too, and make you reconsider how you deal with other people who are less fortunate than you.

This is one of the best essays I’ve read. Ever.

Very long. But very, very worth it. And important and necessary. Please find an hour of your time this week to dive into this story.

The Longform List

🩻 The Nazi Anatomists | Slate, Free

I read this a couple years back and I still think about it. It’s consistently on my mind, just kind of lurking in the background but indelibly coloring every single medical fact and finding I come across.

And I think it’s absolutely essential reading for all scientists and doctors, even science writers and communicators, or even just everyday science enthusiasts.

This story details the very dark foundations of modern medical knowledge, which apparently finds its roots in Hitler’s Germany, built upon the dead bodies of Holocaust victims. This injustice cuts in many important ways. For the families of Hitler’s victims: Being unable to claim the remains of their loved ones. For the victims themselves: Denied their final dignity, even in death. For everyone else: Today suffering from a highly skewed body of medical literature.

It’s also important to point out how unacceptably tolerant science has been about the origins of its knowledge. I understand that many scientists like to remain disconnected from the more social domains of the field, but I think that’s foolish. Doing science purely for the sake of knowledge is incomplete and in my opinion is a big disservice to the field.

Very, very long. But also very important. Commit more than an hour for this.

🔥 Trapped: The Grenfell Tower Story | GQ, $

This is a beast of a story.

It tells the tale of what is one of the worst tragedies in modern-day London, but not in the way that most journalists would tackle it. Instead of a blow-by-blow account of the fire, told alongside the social, scientific and governmental lapses that let it happen, writer Tom Lamont took a more character-driven approach and presenting the crisis in an almost novel-esque light.

The result is an impressive emotional feat—particularly because I’m not the emotional type (I tend to be overly cerebral when I read longform). The story is simultaneously scary, infuriating, heart-breaking and cathartic. It makes you feel the chaos and desperation and hopelessness and helplessness of those trapped in the tower as the fire raged.

It’s a downright riveting experience and it held me captive for the 40 ish minutes it took me to finish the story. I nearly had to skip the gym because I was trapped by this story.

Not too long and it’s a very enjoyable experience. Might take you 40 minutes, shorter if you’re a fast reader. 

☢️ In the Lab Oppenheimer Built, the U.S. Is Building Nuclear Bomb Cores Again | TIME, Free

I have mixed feelings about this one.

On one hand, it’s an impeccable piece of science writing: it’s newsy and current. It’s accessible and accurate, breaking down complex concepts into understandable bits without looking down on the audience. And perhaps most importantly, it’s socially relevant. It doesn’t necessarily say so, but I think the main point of this story is to make everyone aware that the government is again pumping billions of dollars into the U.S.’s nuclear capabilities, in the process hopefully sparking debate about what that means for the country and the world.

On the other, it’s absolutely horrifying and infuriating that this is the direction the world is heading in right now. I don’t think this is a controversial take (if it is, it shouldn’t be), but nuclear weapons pose an existential threat to humanity. I think it’s way overdue that we prohibit the use and testing and transfer and proliferation of nuclear weapons. AND it’s incredibly hypocritical of these nuclear superpowers (the U.S. included, if not foremost) to urge other countries to denuclearize without scaling back their own efforts.

I’ve been a long-time proponent of nuclear disarmament and this story got me so worked up.

Not long, especially if you’re a rage reader. Took me 15 ish minutes.

⚖️ The Innocent Man, Part One | TexasMontly, $

Pamela Colloff is probably among the best-known contemporary True Crime writers, and this, I believe, is one of the stories that helped cement that reputation of hers.

And it’s really easy to see why. This is a massive project—one whose weight you’ll only truly realize once you reach the end of it and realize that you’re only halfway through. Pamela really flexes both her writing and reporting chops here. She tears through what I can only imagine are thousands of pages of court documents and media coverage, and hours upon hours of interviews.

Probably most impressive to me, though, is how she is able to present everything in a way that isn’t boring or overwhelming; neither overly complicated nor insultingly simplistic. That’s a hard balance to strike.

On the subject matter: This is probably one of the most egregious miscarriages of injustice that I’ve ever read—at least if we go off of Pamela’s reporting. I was fuming for most of it, and it infused me with yet more skepticism and distrust of lawyers and the legal system.

Very, very long. But honestly not too difficult to read through, but it might feel a bit dense in some spots. Commit way more than an hour for this. And allot a similar amount of time for Part 2.

☠️ ‘Nobody Knows What’s Down There’: The Endless Fire Poisoning a Community | The Londoner, Free

I wasn’t really expecting too much when I started reading this story—only because I’d just finished the Esquire story above and was looking for a light palate cleanser.

But then it sneakily became one of my favorite articles of the week. A huge part of that is just how fantastical it is (in the scariest way possible, of course) that there’s just this perpetual fire pit burning out there, endlessly spewing noxious gases that’s slowly choking nearby communities.

The writing is really sharp, too. I think it sticks to the basics—that is, focus on the people and the people in power—but executes it very well. Unfortunately, that’s not something that I can say for many other big longform pieces on legacy media outlets.

This reading experience is such a breath of fresh air—which is absolutely the most wrong euphemism to use in this situation.

Not too long, and not difficult to read. Maybe 20 minutes if you can stay focused.

🛬 Nightmare at the Edge of the World: The Crash of Panarctic Oils Flight 416 | Medium (Admiral Cloudberg), Free

When I started committing to read more on Medium, so many people pointed me to Admiral Cloudberg.

And now I know why. I’m not the biggest fan of aviation stories (I’d argue that I’m not a fan at all), but the degree to which she dissects these crashes is incredible. The level of research is unbelievable. I have no idea how she was able to get so microscopically detailed about the moments leading up to a crash—and still tell them in a compelling and colorful way. If nothing, these stories just prove that Admiral Cloudberg needs to be one of the foremost writers on aviation history.

And the story itself here is good, of course. But honestly, aside from some really gripping moments right before and after the crash, I wouldn’t say it’s anything special. It’s truly the writing that makes the entire thing sing.

Very long. So if aviation isn’t your thing, this one might feel dragging in some spots. But otherwise, it’s still a very compelling article that deserves your time. Might need to sink an hour or so into this though.

👾 On the Trail of the Dark Avenger: The Most Dangerous Virus Writer in the World | The Guardian, Free

Now this is more my speed.

Secret, unhinged computer geniuses coming up with increasingly elaborate and dangerous and incurable viruses to ruin much of the world’s cyber systems? Sign me the f— up!

This story takes me back to a time when viruses were actually and genuinely fearsome. I’m sure they’re still out there today, and that I still want them away from my laptop, but I can’t help but feel like viruses have lost their menace in recent years. Or at the very least, they’ve lost their infamy. They’re no longer the scary specter that they used to be, threatening to literally destroy my machine beyond repair.

I never really paused to consider who was behind these viruses and why, but this story helped me discover that that was a point of strong curiosity for me, especially since these virus writers tend to be some very interesting personalities. And so are the people who crusade against them—and this story paints a really compelling competition between two of the most prominent figures in this game. Such a fun story.

I will say, though. It’s kind of disappointing that this is an excerpt. It works bad as a book excerpt, and I wish it was just its own contained story lifted from the book.

Not too long, which is a shame, I’d say. This would have been much better otherwise, I think. You’ll just need 20 minutes at most for this, distractions included.

✨ What is Glitter? | The New York Times, $

This is a nice little palate cleanser. And it comes from that golden era (or dark age, however you prefer to see it) of Media where outlets like The New York Times would run full feature pieces about nothing in particular. Writer Caity Weaver is an absolute master of that genre.

At the time (let’s say 7 to 10 ish years ago), I really enjoyed these types of stories, and I saw it as a sign of a healthy and dynamic Media landscape. I’m not sure I believe that now (but that’s for a different post).

Still, these stories are enjoyable. Really great for when you need to get your word count in but don’t really want to invest too much emotional and mental energy. And you might even pick up some nice fun facts along the way—like how glitter is made and what it’s made up of. Or how there is apparently a massive industry that uses glitter but doesn’t want people to know that it’s glitter. I’m still trying to figure out what that industry is and why it’s so secretive.

Not long at all. Maybe 15 minutes tops.

Thanks for reading! Please, please reach out if you have feedback, suggestions, or questions.

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! 👋