The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
March 28, 2025 at 03:30PM
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In this edition:
- The governor fighting to kill
- A contaminated building site
- The honesty of Bella Ramsey
- The real Texas-Mexico border
- Gambling for show
1. The Human Cost of Jeff Landry’s Drive to Resume Executions
Piper French | Bolts, in partnership with Mother Jones | March 20, 2025 | 6,239 words
A scene from Lawrence Wright’s recent New Yorker feature has stayed with me: A group of nuns visit Melissa, a death row inmate in Texas, on the day of her scheduled execution, only to find her in a cage—a literal cage, not just the metaphorical one of prison. In Piper French’s story, Chris Duncan, who has been on death row in Louisiana’s Angola prison since 1998, tells French that after years of incarceration, all that remained of him was a “body in a cage”—and that execution might be a mercy. The prison-as-cage metaphor is not new, but in French’s telling, its weight is visceral. Duncan was convicted of murdering his then-girlfriend’s toddler daughter. His case was built on now-debunked bite mark forensics, the expertise of discredited doctors, a jailhouse snitch’s faulty testimony, and a damning video never seen at trial. Add to that Louisiana’s history of prosecutorial misconduct—where more than 80 percent of death sentences were overturned between 1976 and 2015—and Duncan’s case becomes a stark reflection of a deeply flawed system. French details his case with care, while zooming out to track the evolution of the state’s legal system, including reforms in recent years that gave incarcerated people, even those on death row, new avenues to claim innocence. But since taking office last year, Governor Jeff Landry has aggressively worked to reinstate executions, reauthorized electrocution, and legalized the experimental method of suffocation by nitrogen gas. After a 15-year pause, Landry got his wish: This past week, Louisiana resumed executions by killing Jessie Hoffman, a man Duncan had grown close to. French’s reporting is urgent, revealing a justice system that gets it wrong far too often—and a governor more focused on sealing the cage than opening it. —CLR
2. The Machine in the Garden
Jordan Blumetti | Oxford American | March 18, 2025 | 13,793 words
In 1959, Solite, a company that pioneered the production of lightweight construction blocks, opened a manufacturing plant in Russell Landing, Florida. During the early years of the Environmental Protection Agency, Solite accepted massive shipments of hazardous waste, which it burned to fire its kilns. Then, in 1995, the plant abruptly closed. Residents and former Solite employees claim the remnants of the factory were dumped into lakes on the property, now targeted for residential development. “The primary concern,” one resident tells Jordan Blumetti, “is that construction equipment will stir up all the toxic sediment that had settled in the ground and in the lake beds all those years ago.” Investigations as painstaking as Blumetti’s rarely feel so lived-in, so vividly inhabited by reporter and sources alike. Blumetti visits a health-food store owned by a former hazardous waste consultant who hauls decades-old documents from a closet, lists of companies that shipped waste to Solite to burn. He watches a Baptist pastor pilot a drone near the Solite property, searching for evidence of contaminated streams. A mother, post-heart transplant, recounts her family’s history of cardiac problems, her own failed heart “in a refrigerator at the University of Florida research hospital,” a potential link between her ill health and a legacy of environmental degradation. A retiree identifies a half-dozen locals with cancer, himself included, but also gestures at “all these beautiful woods.” A brief update appended to Blumetti’s story extends the plight of Russell Landing’s residents indefinitely into the future. “This story is ongoing,” the note concludes. And so it is. —BF
3. “There’s No Reason For People Not To Know”: Bella Ramsey Opens Up About Their Liberating Autism Diagnosis & The Epic New Season Of The Last Of Us
Zing Tsjeng | British Vogue | March 19, 2025 | 3,871 words
A staggering 40 million people watched Bella Ramsey’s appearance in the first season of HBO’s The Last of Us, so it is no shock that we are about to get a second season. In this video game reboot, Ramsey plays Ellie, the potential savior of the human race and loveable pseudo-daughter to protector Joel, played by a brooding Pedro Pascal. In this profile, Zing Tsjeng is quick to put Ramsey at ease, describing the mood as “immediately frolicsome.” (Frolicsome is now a word I am resolved to use more.) I enjoyed that the encounter begins with Ramsey picking Tsjeng up in a tiny red car, where they inform her that “they failed their driving test four times” before promptly drifting into the wrong lane on a roundabout. The pair then hang out at a family-run farm and eat beans on toast, with Tsjeng perfectly happy to stay firmly in Ramsey’s comfort zone and keep things gloriously unpretentious. There, Ramsey revealed their autism diagnosis for the first time. Although this diagnosis has not been discussed before, Tsjeng still keeps things low-key, focusing on Ramsey’s awareness and self-acceptance. I appreciated the resistance to ostentatious fanfare and how Tsjeng allowed us to spend time with Ramsey before discussing their neurodiversity. In their second meeting—when Ramsey makes a dog bowl in a pottery class—it is clear they are finally comfortable in who they are; an old soul who finds joy in the simple things. This is a lovely gentle frolic through Ramsey’s world. —CW
4. The Texas Border Is the New Frontier of Film
Ryan Cantú | Texas Observer | March 17, 2025 | 2,693 words
Hollywood typically depicts the Texas-Mexico border as a dangerous land, but a new wave of directors is flipping the script—and reclaiming their narrative. Local filmmakers, frustrated by the disconnect between their reality and how the border is portrayed in the media, are creating films about their lived experiences. In recent movies such as The In Between, Hummingbirds, and Going Varsity in Mariachi, life along the Rio Grande isn’t defined by cartel violence or tense Border Patrol interactions—it’s just life. Kids spend summer days along the river; students experience the usual ups and downs of high school. “[B]oredom is often the worst-case scenario for people who actually live along the border, at least on the U.S. side,” writes Ryan Cantú. However, making movies in South Texas is challenging due to a lack of infrastructure and limited access to industry resources. Still, this “Border New Wave” genre is growing, and filmmakers and community organizations are coming together to build a network and to improve Latino representation in film. (Cantú is on the board of the Laredo Film Society, which is among these organizations.) As he shows in this Texas Observer story, the border isn’t just a backdrop for crisis. It’s home to talented storytellers—and a nuanced place worthy of the big screen. —CLR
5. The Biggest Loser
Luke Winkie | Slate | March 20, 2025 | 5,265 words
Baby needs a new pair of shoes! For Slate, Luke Winkie profiles profligate gambler Matt Morrow, aka “Vegas Matt,” a man who broadcasts his betting at the El Cortez Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, to his 1.1 million followers on YouTube. Morrow plays baccarat, slots, and blackjack. By recording it all, win or lose, he’s turned his gambling into a lucrative spectacle that allows viewers to experience his highs and lows vicariously, without risking any of their own “chocolate chips.” (A chocolate chip is worth $10,000, a pittance to Morrow, who routinely risks much higher sums.) Your first question might be: Where does he get his money? Thirty percent comes from sponsorships and merch, while YouTube yields 70 percent. Casinos are notoriously private. They watch your every move but prohibit capturing video lest thieves gain an advantage against the house. Not so the El Cortez. Morrow’s 1,200 YouTube videos have earned him a legion of viewers that follow his every move. The El Cortez makes bank on fans who, inspired by Morrow, want to try their luck. Winkie does a great job of trying to dig past Morrow’s rictus-grin hype to understand what motivates a man to gamble so prolifically and record every moment of it. As you might suspect, it’s not about the buzz of the casino, or even the wins. It’s about fame, about validation from views. “The more I was around Morrow, the more I detected an elemental craving just below those gold chains,” writes Winkie. “And why is the grind worth it? Easy. It has made Vegas Matt a celebrity, which, as I learned, is much more of a thrill for him than the money is.” As much as I enjoyed reading this profile about a guy doing what he wants with his own money, I felt uneasy about the shtick, about Morrow’s parlay-as-performance. After all, if you’ve given away years of your life gambling in Vegas for the empty love of YouTube infamy, do you really have anything more to lose? —KS
Audience Award
Here’s the piece our readers loved most this week.
My £2,500 Cavapoo is a Middle-Class Cliché. He’s Also a Fake
Paul Morgan-Bentley | The Times | February 12, 2025 | 2,515 words
My dog Peggy’s DNA was tested: She is a sausage-shaped muddle of basset hound, spaniel, pit bull, and German Shepherd. I had no expectations for Peggy; I knew she was a mutt. But what if you have shelled out thousands for a specific breed? This is what investigative journalist Paul Morgan-Bentley faced with his dog, Eddie. While Eddie was supposedly a cavapoo, Morgan-Bentley’s suspicions grew, until a DNA test finally proved he had been duped. (Don’t worry, Eddie is still very loved despite being a fraud.) —CW
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2025/03/28/the-top-5-longreads-of-the-week-556/
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