@shannabaker.bsky.social writes about the “savior” fish of the Nishga’a Nation. “When it’s time to make grease, each camp has its own proprietary process, just as each has its own fishing strategies. The details are not mine to share.”

Featured #longread: @jcljules.bsky.social writes about the efforts of maritime archeologists and the Slave Wrecks Project to locate and excavate slave shipwrecks.

@chittimarco.bsky.social on the modernization of Italian railways “Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the Italian railway network wasn’t either. But day after day, law after law, project after project, the Italian railway network was able to keep pace with the changing society's needs ...”

@joezadeh.bsky.social on bulldozers. He explores its origins in violent voter suppression to its weaponization in war and state-sanctioned home demolitions, and how it has been a symbol of both creation and destruction. “To bulldoze was to unleash a dose of coercive violence.”

Featured #longread by @maggie-slepian.bsky.social in @longreads.com “To be trapped in this mind is like revisiting the most potent mental and emotional elements of the eating disorder without the physical symptoms and behaviors.”

“Pushbacks” is the illegal practice of forcibly returning refugees to where they came from. @laurenmarkham.bsky.social writes about how reports of them have soared in Greece, and how volunteers and journalists can face time in prison for assisting and documenting them.

I'm thrilled to see that this piece has been named a finalist for the 60th National Magazine Awards. It's one of the best articles I've read all year and serves as a powerful reminder of how even a single civil servant can make a significant impact. This message feels more relevant now than ever.

Featured #longread: @aresluna.org with a fascinating piece about the font “Gorton” and its ubiquity. “Gorton was there on typewriter keyboards, too. And on office signs and airline name tags. On boats, desk placards, rulers, and various home devices from fridges to tape dispensers.”

@swilliamsjourno.bsky.social and @kjknodell.bsky.social on the "Pacific Drug Highway," in @newlinesmag.bsky.social “Latin American drug lords are using the same currents and trade winds that islanders have relied on for centuries to connect and expand their colossal, criminal empires.”

@alexclapp.bsky.social on how Turkey is becoming a dumping ground for Europe's plastic waste. “No sooner had Erdoğan announced her initiative than Turkey emerged as one of the biggest recipients – and one of the biggest dumpsites – of plastic waste anywhere on the planet.”

Featured #longread, in @grantamag.bsky.social: @aubereylescure.bsky.social recounts a journey back to China after years of absence, the return to a homeland that feels both familiar and foreign in unexpected ways.

@eedugdale.bsky.social and Hanisha Harjani report on the safety practices of apps like Tinder and Hinge. “Court documents show that he had already allegedly sexually assaulted nine women and drugged 10. Not only did the apps allow him back on, they featured Matthews’s profile.”

@kitchenbee.bsky.social reviews Nicola Twilley's book “Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet and Ourselves.” in @londonreview.bsky.social “... for every virtue, refrigeration has a corresponding vice.”

Kit Fox in @defector.bsky.social “I know this whole endeavor is silly ... But also understand that my dad created a culture in which German coaches passed strategic tips to Australian competitors. Where Japanese teenagers became pen pals with suburban Texans.”

Featured #longread: @leifw.bsky.social offers an analysis of Aaron Rodgers’ career as it declined, framing it within the context of societal shifts and struggles. “America can’t throw off that founding violence, and neither can Aaron.”

@antonhowes.bsky.social continues to trace the history of how coal rose to become the most prominent energy source. “By the 1590s, London’s consumption had expanded by eight- or even tenfold over what it had been in 1560, with the vast majority now burned in people’s homes.”

Featured #longread: For @placesjournal.bsky.social, Stathis G. Yeros writes how the Ambassador Hotel in San Francisco became a sanctuary during the AIDS epidemic. “Within the building, AIDS was a familiar plight — a point of connection, a common bond, a shared grief.”

Featured #longread: @agreenberg.bsky.social tells the story of how Tigran Gambaryan, a former IRS agent and crypto compliance officer, became a pawn in a multibillion-dollar extortion scheme.

This piece from @samirashackle.bsky.social in @theguardian.com explores issues of trust, consent, and medical ethics within vulnerable communities. “The only mention of the women’s perspectives is the single sentence saying two of them did not recall giving consent.”

Featured #longread: By Lawrence Wright in @newyorker.com “I thought about how these women had been living the quietest life imaginable, until their sudden plunge into a dark and complicated world had filled them with new purpose.”

In @newyorker.com Burkhard Bilger writes about how marching bands have evolved into something bigger. “They flow across it in shifting tableaux, with elaborate themes and spandex-clad dancers, playing full symphonic scores. They don’t call it marching band anymore. They call it the marching arts.”

@natashawalter.bsky.social writes about how the women of Rojava fought to turn their slogan “woman, life, freedom” into reality. “But every single day I’m in north-east Syria, ... I feel my breath taken away by the depth of commitment that women show to what they have created here.”

Highly recommend this excerpt from the new memoir by @kategies.bsky.social “With Uncle Louie, I became two bodies: the one I experienced and the one he measured.”

Florence Williams writes about Ukrainian war widows healing through adventure therapy in @nautil.us “I realize just how much of the positive-psychology dogma naturally emerges when you’re dangling on a cliff face.”

Featured #longread: @kennytorrella.bsky.social on how Big Meat tries to silence its critics, and more importantly, why. “... without heavy subsidization, deregulation, and dependence on taxpayers to either tolerate its pollution or pay to clean it up, [the industry] wouldn’t stand on its own.”

Featured #longread from @timothywhite77.bsky.social in @nytimes.com “He took stock of what really mattered to him at his core.” he writes, “And then he reshaped his beliefs, practices and work around that …”

Timothy Ryback writes about Hitler's relationship with oligarchs, who once reviled him but ultimately empowered his rise. Sound familiar? “German corporations, large and small, helped retool the Weimar Republic as the Third Reich.”

Featured #longread: An excerpt from @otroedgargomez.bsky.social 's new book “Alligator Tears.” “I looked like the real me, not that other, shame-filled version of me I’d been living as before ... I didn’t need to hide ever again.”

In @yalereview.bsky.social Mina Tavakoli questions R.E.M.'s cultural relevance after their mainstream shift. “[Her teacher] slammed his laptop shut after reading the band’s retirement announcement to a silent classroom. 'Finally,' he said, frowning into the distance.”

Featured #longread: Ashley Abramson chases Sophie Cress, a therapist who may exist only to fool search engines. “AI doesn’t have to be involved for slop to be created. Humans are perfectly capable of producing low-quality content and spreading misinformation.”

Valproate is associated with scandal because of uncommunicated side effects with pregnancy. Now the pendulum may have swung too far the other way. After speaking to practitioners, “What [doctors] cannot understand,” writes @hannahsbee.bsky.social “is why valproate is being restricted in men at all.”

If you would like to read something completely different (and sometimes difficult) today, check out this piece from Zachary Garrett. It's centered on Keum Suk Gendry-Kim’s comic Dog Days but has many layers exploring adjacent topics.

@darrenloucaides.bsky.social writes about the events that led to the CEO of Telegram Pavel Durov's arrest. “Durov seems to have been unaware how close to the sun he was flying.”

@alessandroford.bsky.social on the Mediterranean Diet, as a product of politics and marketing. “Compare modern Italian eating with the original idea of the Mediterranean diet and you reach an unavoidable truth: The Mediterranean diet is dead.”

An excellent #longform read from @mccullarmebad.bsky.social in @texasmonthly.bsky.social “[to their children] Would they be passing down a family business, a way of life? Or a bunch of expensive, increasingly flammable land and inevitable heartbreak?”

Eric Lach reports on the leaning tower of... Manhattan. “Rather than pausing to fix what had already been done, an attempt was made to straighten the thing out in midair. To compensate for the lean, higher floors were intentionally poured out of alignment, in the opposite direction.” #longform

Featured #longread: Nicola Twilley on the challenges, historical context, and current research efforts for the development of artificial blood substitutes. “For something that the body makes roughly two million of every single second, red cells are astonishingly difficult to grow outside of it.”

Sam Kriss on vibes: “We need another universal theory of vibes” he writes, maybe because “because of the vibes is not actually a very impressive explanation.” “The vibe shift is also a shift towards vibes.”

@larissaschiavo.bsky.social explores the evolution of indoor air quality from prehistory to modern times. This brief history reveals how our understanding of indoor air quality has progressed and why it remains a critical health issue today.

Mark Hay reports on wellness brands promoting white supremacist views “White nationalists ... know that they are often seen as backwoods hicks who wear white hoods or swastikas. They also know that people don't always recognise hate speech when it's delivered by someone who doesn't fit that mould.”

@charlottehelen.bsky.social challenges the perception that asbestos is a relic of the past. “Mesothelioma victims in the UK are increasingly likely to be teachers, nurses, musicians and accountants—like my dad—who are contracting the disease after working in crumbling, asbestos-filled buildings.”

I rarely get feedback for my newsletter; I wish I could get more. Today, though, I received my first "hate" feedback. At first, I was sad and disappointed. But then I was surprised to feel some pride. I must be doing something right to get this. Keep sharing the good stuff, folks.

Today's featured #longreads: “Signs Of Life In A Desert Of Death” by @nickhuntscrutiny.bsky.social “If fire represents both life and death, we have chosen the latter option.”

Today's featured #longreads: “The ‘Exciting Business Opportunity’ That Ruined Our Lives” by @andreapitzer.bsky.social “Ordinary people might have thought twice about sticking with Amway. But by that point, we had left the small dreams of ordinary people behind.”

Today's featured #longreads: “Why children’s books?” by Katherine Rundell “if you cut a person off from reading, you’re a thief. You cut them off from the song that humanity has been singing for thousands of years. You cut them off from what we have laid out for the next generation, and the next.”

Today's featured #longreads: “In the Midst of Public Catastrophe, I Was in My Own Private Disaster” by Tessa Fontaine “I’d always thought of myself as a person who stayed to help. But here I was, leaving. The pull of my private catastrophe was greater than this public one.”

Today's featured #longreads: “The Languages Lost To Climate Change” by @jwebsterayuso.bsky.social “Where plant and animal species are disappearing, languages, dialects and unique expressions often follow a similar pattern of decline.”

Today's featured #longreads: “The rise of plant poaching: how a craze for succulents is driving a new illegal trade” by Monica Mark “So great is the concern about traffickers ... that scientists have stopped a centuries-old tradition of naming newly discovered species after their locations. ”

Check out our post today for a packed list of ten more #longform recommendations about apocalyptic visions, adopted grandmothers, Fanum, homelessness, and more.

Today's featured #longreads: “An L.L. Bean Heiress Suspected Neighbors of Poisoning Her Trees. What Happened Next Roiled Camden, Maine” by @keziahweir.bsky.social “It is difficult to overstate the rabid desire an ocean view can incite in Camden—with trees often winding up as collateral damage.”