This week, we’re sharing stories from James Carroll, Cecilia D’Anastasio, Ben Steverman, Eva Holland, and Ian Brown.
Sign up to receive this list free every Friday in your inbox.
* * *
1. Abolish the Priesthood
James Carroll | The Atlantic | June 1, 2019 | 31 minutes (7,991 words)
A one-time Catholic priest argues that the clergy is a fundamentally secretive, sexually repressed, misogynistic system, and that dismantling it is the only way to save what is beneficial about the Catholic church, and the only way to protect children from sexual abuse.
2. Shady Numbers And Bad Business: Inside The Esports Bubble
Cecilia D’Anastasio | Kotaku | May 23, 2019 | 32 minutes (8,095 words)
“There’s big money in esports, they say. You’ve heard the stories. Teenaged gamers flown overseas to sunny mansions with live-in chefs. The erection of $50 million arenas for Enders Game-esque sci-fi battles. League of Legends pros pulling down seven-figure salaries. Yet there’s a reason why these narratives are provocative enough to attract lip-licking headlines in business news and have accrued colossal amounts of venture capital. More and more, esports is looking like a bubble ready to pop.”
3. The Wealth Detective Who Finds the Hidden Money of the Super Rich
Ben Steverman | Bloomberg Businessweek | May 23, 2019 | 15 minutes (3,754 words)
“Thirty-two-year-old French economist Gabriel Zucman scours spreadsheets to find secret offshore accounts.”
4. When a Fatal Grizzly Mauling Goes Viral
Eva Holland | Outside | May 23, 2019 | 11 minutes (2,782 words)
“[W]hile strangers on the internet accused Valérie of being irresponsible for bringing her baby into bear country, every parent in Whitehorse knows that a bear could wander across their driveway or through their yard someday. Our whole lives are lived in bear country.”
5. Canada’s Saddest Grow-op: My Humiliating Adventures in Growing Marijuana
Ian Brown | The Globe and Mail | May 19, 2019 | 17 minutes (4,396 words)
“When Ian Brown was tasked with cultivating some home-grown pot, he did what any eager, if inept, gardener would do: he borrowed a state-of-the-art weed machine and hoped for the best. But as he discovered, growing good cannabis is way harder than it looks.”
Get the Longreads Weekly Email