Best Long Reads and Long-Form Articles on the web • Discoverology

Long Reads

Read the best long reads from around the internet, including outstanding long-form articles leading publishers like The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, LA Times, Washington Post and many more.

The Art World’s Mini-Madoff And Me

The Art World’s Mini-Madoff And Me

Art Crime Long Reads

Inigo Philbrick made his money betting big on a rise in price for a few artists, notably Stingel, who is known for his seemingly endless series of indistinguishable paintings of wallpaper, and Wool, whose most famous text painting fittingly spells out the word FOOL.

The Bomb Didn’t Beat Japan… Stalin Did

The Bomb Didn’t Beat Japan… Stalin Did

History Long Reads

The US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when the Japanese finally succumbed to the threat of further nuclear bombardment and surrendered. The support for this narrative runs deep. But there are three major problems with it, and, taken together, they significantly undermine the traditional interpretation of the Japanese surrender.

A Trip To The Cirque Of The Unclimbables

A Trip To The Cirque Of The Unclimbables

Long Reads World

It’s among the most beautiful eyefuls of landscape I’ve ever seen — its rock walls more overpowering than Zion’s, in Utah, its evening light more perfect than Hawaii’s, its peaks more menacing than Denali, and its stillness more complete than the deep rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula.

Who Owns South Africa?

Who Owns South Africa?

History Life Long Reads Politics

The Glen Grey Act was the first piece of legislation to enshrine in law the residential separation of the races. It was also the basis for the notorious Natives Land Act of 1913, which in its final form allocated a mere thirteen percent of all arable land to the black majority. 

The Mob's IT Department

The Mob's IT Department

Crime Long Reads

How two technology consultants helped drug traffickers hack the Port of Antwerp. A story of two men who became pawns of a violent group through coercion and a series of very bad decisions.

The Criminalization Of The American Midwife

The Criminalization Of The American Midwife

Health Long Reads

New York midwife Elizabeth Catlin faces 95 individual felony counts at her upcoming trial. For what? For doing her job. Politics and patriarchy make the work of many credentialed, experienced midwives illegal — to the detriment of women and underserved communities.

How Much Is A Human Life Actually Worth?

How Much Is A Human Life Actually Worth?

Health Life Long Reads

As a society we have historically been willing to incur costs to save lives. Government forces carmakers to reduce air pollution to help people with asthma, and the price of cars goes up. Laws prevent factories from polluting to save fisheries, and goods cost more. But that kind of tradeoff clearly has limits.

Is Poverty Necessary?

Is Poverty Necessary?

Health Life Long Reads

Progress is dynamic, self-generating, unpredictable. Poverty is static, effectively resourceless, subject to interests that are not its own, therefore valuable to those interests. 

Bashir Sultani

Inspiration
Bashir Sultani
‘The Big House And The Picket Fence’

‘The Big House And The Picket Fence’

Crime Long Reads

Tonya Crowder still dreams that she and her fiance, Roosevelt Myles—who’s been in prison for decades fighting what he says is a wrongful conviction—will one day build a life together somewhere “nice, quiet, and simple.”

How Big Tech Plans To Profit From The Pandemic

How Big Tech Plans To Profit From The Pandemic

Long Reads Tech

As the coronavirus continues to kill thousands each day, tech companies are seizing the opportunity to extend their reach and power. Towards a future in which, for the privileged, almost everything is home delivered, either virtually via streaming and cloud technology, or physically via driverless vehicle or drone.

Jeff Pike, Texas’s Own Tony Soprano

Jeff Pike, Texas’s Own Tony Soprano

Crime Long Reads

Jeff Pike, the head of the infamous Texas-based Bandidos motorcycle club, went on trial in federal court for racketeering. Prosecutors called him a ruthless killer, the man behind one of the deadliest biker shootouts in American history at the Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco. Pike, however, said he was just a good family man.

Ponzi Schemes, Private Yachts, And A Missing $250 Million In Crypto: The Strange Tale Of Quadriga

Ponzi Schemes, Private Yachts, And A Missing $250 Million In Crypto: The Strange Tale Of Quadriga

Business Crime Long Reads

When Canadian blockchain whiz Gerald Cotten died unexpectedly last year, hundreds of millions of dollars in investor funds vanished into the crypto ether. But when the banks, the law, and the forces of Reddit tried to track down the cash, it turned out the young mogul may not have been who he purported to be.

How An Olympic Hopeful Robbed 26 Banks On His Bike

How An Olympic Hopeful Robbed 26 Banks On His Bike

Crime Long Reads

Tom Justice put the $20 and $100 bills into paper bags and discarded them in alleys where he knew homeless people would find them. He took all the $2 bills and hid them in the bushes outside his apartment, then watched as kids discovered the money and screamed and giggled.

The Woman Who Lives 200,000 Years in the Past

The Woman Who Lives 200,000 Years in the Past

Life Long Reads

Lynx Vilden is a 54-year-old British expat who, for most of her adult life, has lived wholly off the grid. She doesn’t have cell service or WiFi. Until about ten years ago, Lynx also possessed no credit card, nor fixed address; her previous abodes had neither electricity nor running water.

Nikolay Schegolev

Inspiration
Nikolay Schegolev
The Air Conditioning Trap: How Cold Air Is Heating The World

The Air Conditioning Trap: How Cold Air Is Heating The World

Long Reads Nature

Warmer temperatures lead to more air conditioning; more air conditioning leads to warmer temperatures. The problem posed by air conditioning resembles, in miniature, the problem we face in tackling the climate crisis. The solutions that we reach for most easily only bind us closer to the original problem.

The Day Australia Burned

The Day Australia Burned

Long Reads Nature

Months of drought and high temperatures pushed the country to one of its worst-ever wildfire seasons. On New Year’s Eve the terrified citizens of New South Wales saw a glimpse of Australia’s new future.

The Secret History Of Page Six

The Secret History Of Page Six

Long Reads Media

For more than four decades, Page Six has ruled the world of gossip about the famous and powerful. In an era when celebrities control the narrative and “power” is a dirty word, can it survive?

The Unhealthy Truth Behind 'Wellness' And 'Clean Eating'

The Unhealthy Truth Behind 'Wellness' And 'Clean Eating'

Food Health Long Reads

I thought about food all day; I woke up at night thinking about sausage rolls, pizza, roast chicken with crisp, lemon-rubbed skin. Food friends and foes drew into two distinct camps in my mind, and I saw ill-health at every turn and in every mouthful. I became fearful and thin. I had found wellness. I was not well.

Michael Crichton

Inspiration
Michael Crichton
Was The Millennium Dome Really So Bad? The Inside Story Of A (Not So) Total Disaster

Was The Millennium Dome Really So Bad? The Inside Story Of A (Not So) Total Disaster

Architecture Long Reads Politics

Twenty years later, it is still a byword for New Labour hubris, squandered resources and hideously bungled planning. In fact, it was a byword for all of these things before it even opened. It is clear that the prevailing narrative that the Dome was a total failure is not – or at least not quite – the full story.

How The ‘Rugby Rape Trial’ Divided Ireland

How The ‘Rugby Rape Trial’ Divided Ireland

Crime Long Reads

After a trial that dominated the news, the accused were all found not guilty. But the case had tapped into a deeper rage that has not died down. The #MeToo movement was in full flow, and women from all over the island of Ireland were telling painful stories of sexual humiliations at the hands of men.

Behind The Scenes At Rotten Tomatoes

Behind The Scenes At Rotten Tomatoes

Long Reads Media Tech

Humans, not algorithms, determine those ubiquitous scores. The Tomato­meter is run by a team of “curators” who read just about every known review from a gigantic pool of approved critics, then decide if each is positive or negative. Once a movie has five reviews, it is Tomatometer-eligible.

The Bizarre Bank Robbery That Shook An Arctic Town

The Bizarre Bank Robbery That Shook An Arctic Town

Crime Long Reads World

As one of the northernmost settlements on earth, the Norwegian hamlet of Longyearbyen has become a magnet for adventurous souls looking to start a new life. But when an unsettling crime happened, it brought home a harsh reality: in the modern world, trouble always finds you.

This Land Is No Longer Your Land

This Land Is No Longer Your Land

Long Reads

The fight over preserving public land during the Trump era is taking a strange, angry twist in Montana’s Crazy Mountains. Both sides are armed.

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