“Pet food is a £120bn industry, with vast resources spent on working out how best to nourish and delight our beloved charges. But how do we know if we’re getting it right?”
The Guardian
‘If You Scream You Are a Dead Duck’: At 14, my Mother Left me Alone All Summer – Then the Man With a Knife Found Me
“I asked her not to go on the six-week camping trip with her boyfriend, but she said I would be fine. I wasn’t – I was raped.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week we have stories from Christopher Johnston and Erin Quinlan, Dan McQuade, Crystal Wilkinson, Simon Akam, and Nicholson Baker.
Precipice of Fear: the Freerider Who Took Skiing to its Limits
“Jérémie Heitz has pushed freeriding to breathtaking, beautiful new extremes. But as the risks get bigger, the questions do, too”
Guatemala’s Baby Brokers: How Thousands of Children Were Stolen for Adoption
“From the 1960s, baby brokers persuaded often Indigenous Mayan women to give up newborns while kidnappers ‘disappeared’ babies.”
An English Couple, a Ukrainian Surrogate and a Baby: the Extraordinary Story of How War United Two Unlikely Families
“Anastasia was living in Zaporizhzhia and was pregnant with Dorothy and Charlie’s baby. Then Russia invaded and she knew she had to escape to save the child.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week we’re showcasing stories from Mari Cohen, Brenna Ehrlich, Grace Glassman, Tad Friend, and Imogen West-Knights.
‘How Do You Reduce a National Dish to a Powder?’: The Weird, Secretive World of Crisp Flavors
“Why can you buy lasagne flavour snacks in Thailand but not in Italy? Which country can cope with the hottest chili? And why do Germans like paprika so much?”
One Swedish Zoo, Seven Escaped Chimpanzees
“The great apes at Furuvik Zoo broke free from their enclosure last winter. This is the story of the most dramatic 72 hours of their lives.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring reads from Scott Huler, Sophie Elmhirst, Lauren Smiley, Brian Payton, and Caity Weaver.
