Insider Gossip

The Insider

Samanth Subramanian | Guardian | 3rd October 2023

Assessment of Michael Lewis and his book on Sam Bankman-Fried. Such is Lewis' reputation that Apple paid $5m for the TV rights without reading it, yet the collapse of FTX took him completely by surprise. Has he become too well-known now to report accurately? He "doesn’t write about people he can’t befriend"; a book on George Soros was abandoned because of a personal conflict (6,400 words)

The Morality of Gossip: A Kantian Account

Cécile Fabre | Ethics | 1st October 2023 | PDF

Readable academic paper about the ethics of gossip. Although gossiping can be a helpful social lubricant, it also reveals a negligent attitude to our fellow humans. "Our failure to treat others with the respect and concern they are owed as persons is especially wrongful when it manifests itself in a conversational practice which we would not engage in but for the fact that they are persons" (12,500 words)