Big Tobacco takes a page from the Silicon Valley playbook: Welcome to the world of alternative nicotine platforms.
Nonfiction
Mixing Business and Family in the LA Lakers Empire
At ESPN, Ramona Shelburne tells the complex family drama between the president and other stakeholders, which include her siblings.
The Outdoorsy Type’s Dilemma
At the Guardian, Marisa Meltzer looks at the self-congratulatory corporate philosophies of Patagonia and The North Face.
The Most Amazing Chef You’ve Never Heard of is a Zen Buddhist Nun
Jeong Kwan has no restaurant, no customers, and no cookbooks, yet her vegan cuisine earns rave reviews from Michelin-star chefs.
RAWR! What’s Happening to Me? The Truth is Out There (About Menopause)
Gillian Anderson and Jennifer Nadel speak frankly about perimenopause and menopause to destigmatize the flow and ebb of the female reproductive cycle.
He Learned it All on Google and YouTube: How to Become a Gold Smuggler
Want to become an international gold smuggler? Harold Vilches started his life of crime with a Google search for gold dealers in Peru and YouTube videos on how to make your own gold ingots.
LOL, JFK: The Hot Mess That Is U.S. Immigration Law
Immigration lawyer Matt Cameron writes in The Baffler, laying bare the inequities, misconceptions, and plain messiness that characterize U.S. immigration law.
Oh, Give Me a Home Where the Woolly Mammoths Roam
Ross Andersen’s captivating profile of Nikita Zimov and his quest to re-create a Pleistocene ecosystem is worth reading, not least for a fascinating explanation of how grasses went from being slimy ocean plants to covering huge swaths of the planet.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories by Sarah Menkedick, Adam Davidson, Ross Andersen, Victor Luckerson, and Tara Murtha.
‘When Neanderthals Disappeared From Here, We Became the Sole Inheritors of Our Continent’
In Gibraltar, science writer Gaia Vince discovers that analyzing the genetics of ancient humans means changing ideas about our evolution.
