The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
August 08, 2025 at 03:30PM
Thoughtful stories for thoughtless times.
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- The politics of pools
- Not so nice mining ice
- Ultrarunning scamp or champ?
- Tom fauxlery
- Smells like snail spirit
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1. No Entry
Hannah S. Palmer | Earth Island Journal | Summer 2025 | 3,457 words
I recently moved inland from the San Francisco Bay Area, and 90-degree-plus days are now the norm. While it’ll take time to get used to the heat, I love how often we’ve gone swimming this summer. For $6 a visit, we can enjoy two massive sparkling pools and a waterslide in a leafy park, supervised by a rotating team of lifeguards. The quick bike ride to this public pool was one reason we bought our house—and it’s made me think a lot about recreational access to water: pools, lakes, beaches, and other places to play and cool off. In this excerpt from her new book, The Pool is Closed: Segregation, Summertime, and the Search for a Place to Swim, Hannah S. Palmer reflects on lost Southern waters, retracing the history of integration in the South and how it led to the abandonment of public pools and other facilities. “When we talk about water, we’re talking about race and class,” she writes. Wondering where her young sons can learn how to swim, Palmer visits public pools in Atlanta and creeks and lakes in the region: “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.” When white people rebuilt their own private versions of these places, these spaces were lost to everyone else, particularly Black communities. Her reflections on pools ripple outward: What she discovers also applies to parks, schools, libraries, transit. “Life is not so different from what happens when we swim in public,” she writes. This piece is a compelling introduction to her research on water and public space, as well as parenting in a time of environmental crisis. —CLR
2. Whiteouts, Ice Roads, and Wolverines: What Working at a Diamond Mine in the Far North Is Like
Jeremy Thomas Gilmer | The Walrus | August 2, 2025 | 3,496 words
A friend of mine has two engagement rings. One is a real diamond; the other is a replica she wears when she’s worried she’ll lose the first. This has made “Guess the ring” a new game. I’ve never gotten it wrong (her fiancé has). The real diamond catches the light and sparkles joyously in a way only a diamond can. I understand why we’re so drawn to them, and yet the lengths we go to extract these gems from the earth are still truly extraordinary. In this piece, an excerpt from his book This Rare Earth: Building the Dams, Mines and Megaprojects That Run Our World, Jeremy Thomas Gilmer takes us with him to Diavik Diamond Mine, set in a frozen expanse 220 kilometers from the Arctic Circle. In this desolate, frigid landscape—the home of foxes and the wolverine, “a mini grizzly high on meth”—the land has been split open into two vast pits to reach kimberlite stone, which is then spun through a cyclone to separate diamonds from waste rock. Despite being a veteran of the industry, Gilmer remains in awe of both the terrain and the human effort poured into this place. One day, he sees the lights of long-haul truckers bringing supplies across an ice road that “lifts to meet you, released from the load of the trucks ahead.” As the road creaks and shifts beneath them, these drivers know they’re risking their lives—just as Gilmer’s crew does every day, working in -40 degrees, a temperature that will kill you in 30 minutes without the right gear. Gilmer paints the mine so vividly I could feel a chill creep into my bones. I left with a sense of wonder (and maybe a little in despair) at what we humans will do for a shiny frivolity. I own one diamond. A gift. It’s teeny-tiny, just a glimmer on a necklace. But it isn’t lab-made. Its certificate proudly informs me it’s from a mine in Northern Canada. Perhaps even from Diavik. The effort and cost to get it to me have been immense. But my, does it sparkle. —CW
3. Has David Roche Cracked the Code? Or Is He Just Another Crackpot?
Spencer Campbell | 5280 Magazine | August 6, 2025 | 4,257 words
Running 100 miles is brutally difficult under the best circumstances. (I assume it is, anyway. I’ve never run more than 13, which makes me think 100 ranks somewhere on the Pain Scale between “IRS audit” and “being drawn and quartered.”) Add incessant climbing and the oxygen-poor air found at high altitudes, and the infamous Leadville 100 is the sort of sufferfest that makes you question a person’s sanity. Yet, a running coach named David Roche shattered the course record last year by basically eating his way to the finish line. After that unprecedented performance, Spencer Campbell’s ultrarunning brother started training Roche-style—only to experience one of the worst races of his young life, complete with what I can only describe as a prodigious eruption of energy gel. Campbell, justifiably, became skeptical. Was Roche on to something, or was his science-backed smorgasbord just so much shilling for Big Carbohydrate? As any good journalist would, Campbell decided to see for himself, and signed up for a 21-mile race. There was only one issue: His running prowess amounted to three plodding miles at a time, and having two young children meant that he had about as much free time as a DoorDash driver during the Super Bowl. What follows is a meditation on suffering, parenting, and breaking through your own expectations. It’s been a while since I got out on the trail, but I can’t lie: This story made me want to pack an ungodly amount of Gu into my running vest and get ready to hurt. In the best way possible, of course. —PR
4. Knock It Off!
Mia Sato | The Verge | July 22, 2025 | 6,351 words
Recently, in an effort to keep my cat in my apartment and a local raccoon family out while still enjoying the cool air of Northern California, I found myself online looking to buy a magnetic screen door. I thought the search would be easy, that there would be one door with the best reviews, the most expert recommendations, tens of thousands of purchases—one door to rule them all. But no: There were scores of options, all of which looked about the same, down to the AI-generated photos associated with their listings. They were made by companies with names like Qoosea, KISPATTI, and Kiyuycy. They were dupes, the ecommerce phenomenon that Mia Sato analyzes in this essay. “It has never been faster or easier to make and sell a copy of something. What was once relegated to Canal Street is now an industry in and of itself,” Sato writes. “Some companies seem to operate with the express purpose of copying popular (or even niche) consumer products. And for American shoppers already accustomed to inexpensive products, finding the same thing for less is second nature.” Sato illuminates how dupes are flooding social media feeds, infiltrating every corner of the online economy, and even stuffing court dockets. But what will stick with me most from this essay are the dupe fiends—the people who describe buying cheaper copies of products they covet as an act of rebellion. For these individuals, Sato writes, “Finding something cheaper elsewhere isn’t just a pastime. It’s a noble way to fight back against greedy companies.” But can consumerism ever really be righteous? Or has capitalism has just duped us into thinking so? —SD
5. All Hail the Mighty Snail
Dina Gachman | Texas Monthly | July 31, 2025 | 1,508 words
Walking down the street this spring, I met two young girls who had found a snail about the size of a golf ball on a green stretch of lawn. They were excited to show their discovery to a complete stranger and so I knelt down to admire their languid new friend. I had never seen such a large snail before. It appeared moist, its shell variegated in tans and browns. Charmed by the snail and their enthusiasm, I exclaimed and marveled, and asked them what they noticed about it. They chattered away, interrupting each other while their mom smiled to herself a few feet away. This chance meeting made my day. Remembering the reason for this wholesome encounter, I was powerless against Dina Gachman’s appreciation of snails and the enthusiastic community behind them for Texas Monthly. This story stars Gary, a milk snail who took a wrong turn and ended up on a jade plant in Jorjana Gietl’s sister’s shop, It’s a Succulent Thang. Gary was outed by an inspector and had to be removed from the plant before sale, though, because milk snails are nonnative to Texas. Gietl decided to take Gary home and learn everything she could about raising snails so that he could have a happily ever after. Now Gietl has more than 100 garden snails that she breeds and sells locally to fellow enthusiasts. There’s plenty to learn about these creatures in this piece. Snails are hermaphrodites and easy to breed! Enthusiasts provide cuttlebone so that snails get the calcium they need to grow and repair their shells! If you listen very, very carefully you can actually hear them eating! This piece might be on the shorter side of the reading we typically recommend, but it’s no less satisfying. It’s a lovely reminder that despite what’s going on in the world, despite the grim news cycle, wonder still exists, if you stop and take the time to look. —KS
Audience Award
Here’s the piece our audience loved most this week.
My Scammer
Alexander Sammon | Slate | August 4, 2025 | 4, 537 words
How far would you go along with a scammer in the name of research? Upon receiving a recruitment text, Alexander Sammon took on a job, made a “friend,” and attempted to get paid. While it may be something you would never do, I bet you have always wondered about what would happen if you did. So let Sammon take you on this wild ride into the world of scammers . . . or is it even a scam? —CW
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2025/08/08/the-top-5-longreads-of-the-week-574/
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