A Month With Chemtrail Conspiracy Theorists, And Other Great Reads
Every week, we highlight the longform articles from recent days that we think you shouldn't miss. Here are this week's picks:
The Exquisitely English (And Amazingly Lucrative) World Of London Clerks
The headline doesn't do this story justice: This is a wildly entertaining look into the bonkers English legal world, where clerks — working class go-betweens sometimes described as "pimps" — exert surprising influence over posh barristers and their clients.
The Beleaguered Tenants Of 'Kushnerville'
ProPublica and the New York Times Magazine co-published this solidly reported, absolutely infuriating investigation into Kushner Companies' —as in Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law — practice of suing low-income tenants over minor (or imaginary) infractions and hounding them until they pay up.
My Month With Chemtrails Conspiracy Theorists
Writer Carey Dunne spent a month working as a farmhand on an organic farm in California, and she discovered that the farm's owners believed in chemtrails (ostensibly toxic chemicals sprayed by planes to control the weather). Dunne's article about the experience, and her attempts to change their minds, sheds light on how everyday Americans come to believe in fake news and conspiracy theories.
Wanna Know What Donald Trump Is Really Thinking? Read Maggie Haberman
Rachael Combe's profile of Maggie Haberman — the tenacious New York Times reporter who has broken some of the biggest scoops about the Trump campaign and administration — will make you believe in journalism again, and might even give you hope about the potential of honest, thorough reporting to cut across party lines.
[Elle]
Fire On The Mountain
An almost literary telling of the night last fall when the town of Gatlinburg, Tennessee faced the worst fire in the Smoky Mountains in a century. Everyone whose life has been upended by a disaster deserves to have their story told so beautifully.
Transcript Of New Orleans Mayor Landrieu's Address On Confederate Monuments
Mitch Landrieu's speech, which was delivered hours before a statue of Robert E. Lee was removed from its perch in central New Orleans, isn't a traditional long read, but it's a stirring, must-read indictment of America's ongoing refusal to grapple with the legacy of slavery.
