“As gambling on tennis exploded into a $50 billion industry, he had infiltrated the sport, paying pros more to lose … than they could make by winning tournaments.”
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Acts of the Apostles
“In a community hard-hit by opioids, one pastor is knocking on motel room doors to invite people to worship. The message: We’re all broken people.”
The Smallest Victims: Why Does America Keep Allowing Toddlers to Shoot Themselves?
“Nearly every day, a child unintentionally fires a gun and injures or kills someone. It’s one of the most preventable forms of gun violence—but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to solve.”
The Evolutionary Reasons We Are Drawn to Horror Movies and Haunted Houses
“Scary play lets people—and other animals—rehearse coping skills for disturbing challenges in the real world.”
This Is the Hometown of San Francisco’s Drug Dealers
“A housing boom in one area of Honduras, rooted in migration to the U.S., is being fueled by drug sales in San Francisco.”
Learning to Walk Again (and Our Top 5)
“The average U.S. public school has about 550 students. Imagine eight or nine schools in an area roughly the size of Philadelphia where every kid is missing at least one limb. Imagine also that their amputations happened alongside a torrent of other tragedies: the loss of family members, friends, neighbors, schools, houses.” In the latest issue of […]
Fabulous Fungi and Our Top 5 of the Week
“To a reading list on these mind-bending entities at a planetary tipping point, welcome. What you see here are only some fruiting bodies, the rest lies underneath.” I first learned about the parasitic fungus that takes over a bug’s body and commandeers its brain back in 2023, when I picked Zhengyang Wang’s “The Last of […]
Portrait of a True Crime Character
“He’s made many accusations and burned almost as many bridges. Rusty’s life isn’t a podcast or a Netflix documentary. Rusty’s life is a mess.”
On the Trail of the Fentanyl King
“An Iraqi translator for the US military emigrated to Texas to start a new life. He ended up becoming one of the biggest drug dealers on the dark web.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Recommending excellent stories by Charlotte Higgins, Lex Pryor, Michael Hardy, Elissa Altman, and Brad Phillips.


