Some feel good for your Friday.
---------------------
Thank You for Finding Me: As a teenager, I met a stranger who changed the course of my life. Twenty years later, I went looking for him.
Longreads · Thank You for Finding Me
Administered by:
#longreads
8 posts6 participants0 posts today
Our Top 5:
• Mapping the scars (Slate)
• A parent, twice met (The New Yorker)
• Paradise in peril (The Dial)
• Hallucinating war (The Point)
• Wriggly business (The Local)
Longreads · The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Resharing this article by Scott Santens on UBI, and pausing to imagine a society built around giving everyone a chance to be their best.
https://www.scottsantens.com/what-the-media-isnt-telling-you-why-universal-basic-income-ubi-is-the-answer-to-poverty-insecurity-and-inequality/
- "Most targeted assistance programs tend to exclude the majority of those they’re intended to help... four out of five families the program is intended to reach don’t get it"
- "In some experiments, the loudest complainers are moneylenders who can no longer find people willing to take out loans with 500% interest rates. Oh no, I’m so sad for them."
- "UBI is a change to the status quo. It is a redistribution of power. Once everyone can refuse to work and still eat, employers will need to pay more for certain jobs."
#UBI #LongReads
https://www.scottsantens.com/what-the-media-isnt-telling-you-why-universal-basic-income-ubi-is-the-answer-to-poverty-insecurity-and-inequality/
- "Most targeted assistance programs tend to exclude the majority of those they’re intended to help... four out of five families the program is intended to reach don’t get it"
- "In some experiments, the loudest complainers are moneylenders who can no longer find people willing to take out loans with 500% interest rates. Oh no, I’m so sad for them."
- "UBI is a change to the status quo. It is a redistribution of power. Once everyone can refuse to work and still eat, employers will need to pay more for certain jobs."
#UBI #LongReads
"He talks about it all as though he’s sending me on a trip to see something that will make me realise things I couldn’t have possibly known before." —Patrick Galbraith for The Fence
https://www.the-fence.com/another-rave-review/?src=longreads
The Fence · Another Rave ReviewPolice in Helicopter
"Chatbots can privilege staying in character over following the safety guardrails that companies have put in place." —Kashmir Hill and Dylan Freedman for The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/technology/ai-chatbots-delusions-chatgpt.html/?src=longreads
The New York Times · Chatbots Can Go Into a Delusional Spiral. Here’s How It Happens.
"Tourists pouring themselves a bath, cleansing themselves of their 12-hour flight. Ignorant that the rest of us have to live on only four to eight hours of water flowing through our taps most days in high summer."
Ariel Saramandi for The Dial: https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/issue-30/mauritius-climate-crisis
The DialThe Future of Climate Change Is on Mauritius — The DialFreak tornadoes, “explosions” of jellyfish, flash floods and dried up pumps.
"To raise sunflower stars in captivity and release them to the Pacific, however, scientists must first learn how to keep stars from dying. And for that, they must know what’s killing them in the first place."
Craig Welch for bioGraphic: https://www.biographic.com/unmasking-the-sea-star-killer/
bioGraphic · Unmasking the Sea Star KillerAfter a decade of carnage, we finally know what’s devastating sea stars along North America’s West Coast. Does that mean scientists can save them?
In her new essay, Hannah Engler searches for answers about her great-uncle, a forgotten 1970s fashion designer: https://longreads.com/2025/08/07/1970s-fashion-designer-ronald-kolodzie/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social
Continued thread
If you enjoy the presentation, please check out my "Break Into Chat" blog, where you can find more fascinating, obscure retrocomputing stories and interviews!
This is one of the most interesting things I've read in a long time.
The TLDR is, a woman was diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent 20 years living with that diagnosis and with life-altering symptoms. Then she needed chemotherapy and her "schizophrenia" … just went away.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/07/28/mary-had-schizophrenia-then-suddenly-she-didnt
The New Yorker · Mary Had Schizophrenia—Then Suddenly She Didn’t
"I wanted to know what is revealed about history and faith — and ourselves — when we reenact the same story year after year."
Martha Park for The Bitter Southerner: https://bittersoutherner.com/issue-no-11/for-the-living-of-these-days-scopes-trial
THE BITTER SOUTHERNERFor the Living of These Days — THE BITTER SOUTHERNEREvery summer, locals reenact the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee, where Prosecutor William Jennings Bryan remains something of a hero. I wanted to see for myself why this story still resonates — particularly as conservative Christianity’s influence on contemporary politics has only
"A library-based service might not fully 'solve' the streaming dilemma, but I think it would help foster intentional listening, which is part of the puzzle."
A conversation between Jenn and Liz Pelly for Pioneer Works Broadcast: https://pioneerworks.org/broadcast/jenn-pelly-liz-pelly-mood-machine
Sister Inquiry | BroadcastSister Inquiry | BroadcastThe Pelly twins on music, writing, and life beyond algorithms.
Here's what we've got for you in our Weekly Top 5:
* The politics of pools (Earth Island Journal)
* Not so nice mining ice (The Walrus)
* Ultrarunning scamp or champ? (5280 Magazine)
* Tom fauxlery (The Verge)
* Smells like snail spirit (Texas Monthly)
Learn why our editors have recommended these pieces and find out which story our audience loved most.
Longreads · The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
"Of the original nine siblings, only Three, Six, and Nine were still alive. If you want to talk to them, you should do it soon, just in case, said my mother, so I went."
In this week's new essay, Hannah Engler interrogates a typo in her great-uncle's obituary.
Longreads · Beloved Bother
"Reid hands me the second fish, a backup, still wet and iridescent, slipping it into a white garbage bag — my carry-on for the 15-minute flight."
Kim Cross for Food & Wine: https://www.foodandwine.com/wild-salmon-alaska-11769432
Food & WineAmerica Is the World’s Most Abundant Source of Wild Salmon — Why Are We Still Eating Farmed?Wild salmon is abundant in Alaska and coveted by chefs — but most Americans eat the cheaper, milder farmed kind. Journalist Kim Cross set out to learn why — and how to cook the real thing right.
"The strands that connected me to my great-uncle were tenuous, but I clung to them as I became an adult: art, Manhattan, and blood."
NEW on Longreads: Hannah Engler on chasing her great-uncle, a forgotten 1970s fashion designer.
Longreads · Beloved Bother
"He always told his own son that if he were to climb, he’d climb as an athlete, not a guide. If Nima was going to risk it all, he would risk it for his own dreams." —Gloria Liu for National Geographic.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/manaslu-nima-rinji-sherpa-nepal-mountaineers
www.nationalgeographic.com · Can this Sherpa change mountain climbing forever?
"I drove all over Georgia investigating places where people used to swim that faded from the map after integration: pools filled, lakes drained, beaches sliced into private properties."
Hannah S. Palmer for Earth Island Journal: https://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/magazine/entry/the-american-souths-missing-pools-and-lakes
"He had become wealthy and famous by unearthing other people’s secrets, but the man known as Sheridan Bruseaux was keeping a few of his own."
An excerpt from the new Atavist Magazine story, by Matthew Wolfe: https://longreads.com/2025/08/05/black-detective-sheridan-bruseaux/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social
Longreads · The Mostly True Story of America’s First Black Private Investigator
"There are many more scams than before, and it is a growth industry. It is a great time to be a scammer." —Alexander Sammon for Slate
https://slate.com/technology/2025/08/indeed-job-recruiter-text-message-scam.html/?src=longreads
Slate · I Responded to One of the Spam Texts From a “Recruiter”—Then Took the Job. It Got Weirder Than I Could Have Imagined.