Is Pope Leo Targeting Peter Thiel?

Nate Anderson | ArsTechnica | 26th May 2026

Close reading of a papal encyclical about AI to determine whether the Bishop of Rome is quoting Gandalf in order to make an example of Peter Thiel, "the onetime PayPal co-founder and current Antichrist alarmist". Thiel, it should be noted, "is a Tolkien fanboy in the worst way". Pope Leo uses Tolkien's character to make a case against "tech messianism" and for love and charity in AI implementation (1,800 words)

Comparisons As Predictable As The Sunrise

Russell Samora | Pudding | 27th May 2026

Data-driven exploration of the simile in fiction. They're everywhere: this dataset focused just on the "as X as Y" format and contains over 200,000 examples. Each common adjective — "dry", "broad", "real" — has a unique distribution between clichéd instances and unique comparisons. The ironic similes listed are especially fun, such as Ian Rankin's excellent "as welcome as haemorrhoids at a rodeo" (2,500 words)

When Fame Comes Very, Very Late

Robert F. Graboyes | Bastiat’s Window | 26th May 2026

Stories of mid-20C musicians whose musical fame came much later thanks to long-forgotten recordings being circulated online. Vashti Bunyan was discovered in 1965 by the Rolling Stones’ manager, recorded some songs (which were unsuccessful) and went off to live in a commune in Scotland, only to be rediscovered by the Internet in the 2000s. Many of these musicians led strange lives (1,600 words)

Puzzle: Play Nomido, the Browser’s daily word game.

My Life As A True Crime Spectacle

Heather Jane | Toronto Life | 13th April 2026

Daughter of the Rolex Killer describes the toll that true crime media has taken on her. Difficult read. “At its best, true crime can be a way to pursue justice where the police and courts have failed. But a lot of true crime content is just a cheap bid for clicks that retraumatises people who are already reeling. I feel like I’m getting kicked in the teeth with each retelling of my father’s crimes” (5,100 words)

Sapphire & Poole

Adam Scovell | On The Row | 22nd May 2026

In the 1980s, Joanna Lumley of Sapphire & Steel and Pink Panther fame became the unlikely champion of British bespoke menswear. With the rise of casual dressing and ready-to-wear retail, Savile Row was facing a tough time. She supported the crafts of the Row by starring in adverts for their hitherto male-dominated tailoring houses. Charming bit of sartorial history featuring many iconic photographs (3,500 words)

Puzzle: Play Nomido, the Browser’s daily word game.

Counterfactuals

Colin McGinn | 25th May 2026

“In a world with less gravity, the birds would be huge. In a world with more gravity, only insects would fly. In a wetter world, we would have gills. In a drier world, life would begin on the land, if it begins at all. Counterfactuals are inherently surprising. They tell us how different things could be under small changes. In a world without counterfactuals, there would be no thought” (400 words)

'The Devil’s Child'

Sean Williams | Guardian | 21st May 2026

Profile of Mako Nishimura, a former member of Japan's criminal underworld known as "the only female yakuza". A troubled teen, she was recruited after she defended a pregnant friend with a baseball bat. Her talent for violence and willingness to exploit other women took her high into the upper echelons of Japan's franchise-based mafia system. Then, thanks to addiction, her life began to unravel (4,900 words)

Puzzle: Play Nomido, the Browser’s daily word game.

The Wrong Stalker

Matthias Gafni | San Francisco Chronicle | 19th May 2026

Crime story, told via a mixture of primary documents and meticulous investigative reporting. In 2022, Shawn Stewart was a recovering addict living with his parents in Sacramento, California and working at a warehouse. He started receiving weird messages from his former drug counsellor, which he reported. Then he was arrested for stalking her — and a years-long nightmare began to unfold (13,000 words)

Podcast: The Century Safe | 99% Invisible. In 1876, Americans filled an iron safe with objects meant to tell their story, to be opened a century later. When it was opened in 1976, the objects surprised and unsettled people. First in a new series that tells the history of the United States in 100 objects (30m 5s)

Video: This Discovery Changed Human History | YouTube | The British Museum | 16m 13s

Consider The Sister

Lindsey Adler | The Small Bow | 12th May 2026 | U

Profile of Amy Wallace, sister of David Foster Wallace. In the almost twenty years since his suicide, she has taken on the job of continually recontextualising his literary legacy. She reminds the world he was a human, not a puzzle. “I do feel that it's kind of incumbent on me to let the world know what a very normal person he was... And that he was mostly happy, generous — and extremely funny” (4,700 words)

Puzzle: Play Nomido, the Browser’s daily word game.

The Good Old Hockey Gamers

Tom Hawthorn | Tyee | 21st May 2026 | U

Remembering three recently deceased giants of ice hockey — a broadcaster, an analyst and a coach — who connected today's players and fans back to the post-1945 era. In the 21C, hockey has become a sport for the rich, with tickets and coaching out of reach for many. These men came up at a different time, struggling to buy equipment and working oddjobs in league's offseason (3,300 words)

Double-Double Toil And Trouble

Alex Park | Oakland Review Of Books | 14th May 2026

Media critique, interesting throughout. A branch of the In-N-Out fast food chain near the Oakland airport became the subject of international tabloid scrutiny even before its closure was announced in 2024. Not in itself significant, this event became the case study for America's crime problems, perhaps because the city where it occurred was "too gentrified, or not gentrified enough" (3,500 words)

Boarding China’s Last Bus

Zilan Qian | Asterisk | 20th May 2026

Americans are fearful of how AI will reshape their economy. In China, people seem more enthusiastic. Why? Because Chinese workers already lived through the forced economic restructuring of the 1990s, during which "the only possible response was to move with it before it moved without you". Embracing the new reality and catching the "last bus" to post-socialist prosperity was the way to survive (4,600 words)

The Global Fertility Crisis

Derek Thompson & Jesús Fernández-Villaverde | 18th May 2026

Interview; interesting throughout. 2023 was a unique year in human history, because our total fertility rate fell below replacement rate for the first time in 200,000 years. The epicentres of the fertility collapse will surprise people: Latin America, North Africa, the Middle East. If Thailand continues at its current fertility rate for 200 years, its population will decline from 63 million to 2 million (6,900 words)

Puzzle: Play Nomido, the Browser’s daily word game.

Hanoi’s Humble Beer Glass

Parni Ray | Sunday Long Read | 15th May 2026

Ode to the Bia hơi cốc, the handmade, bumpy, blue-green glass in which Vietnam’s state breweries have been serving fresh draft beer since the 1970s. The cốc’s designer, Le Huy Van, wanted to create something “mundane, unprecious, cheap” with local glassblowers to suit the needs of a post-war state in austerity. Despite mass-produced glass from China flooding the market, the cốc has endured (5,000 words)

Are Better Injuries Worse?

The Browser recently recommended About Pain And Other Ailments by Andrea Petkovic, who argues that in the life of an athlete, there are injuries and there are “injuries”. Today, The Browser shares this short video capsule: Are Better Injuries Worse?

Puzzle: Play Nomido, the Browser’s daily word game.

The Privilege Of Bad Writers

Corey Robin | 15th May 2026

Social media breeds a specific type of bad writer: bad at writing, but certain everyone wants their thoughts. These further break down into three types. The "droners" simply have no awareness of or care for their audience. The "the first-year graduate students" are still chasing how clever they felt in their early twenties. Lastly, there's the "confused word saladists", who "don’t know what they don’t know" (1,400 words)

Puzzle: Play Nomido, the Browser’s daily word game.

Rights Require Money

Attiya Waris | Aeon | 14th May 2026

Human rights are an abstract framework, above and separate to other, less philosophically backed, policy areas. This is a mistake: protecting rights costs money. Financiers and rights defenders need to be in the same rooms. "The fiscal systems of many African countries suffer not just from a lack of money but from a lack of the conditions under which money can be governed legitimately" (3,600 words)

Podcast: Stanley Kubrick Finds Heavenly Music On Vinyl | MUBI. Against the advice of just about everybody, Kubrick decided that 2001: A Space Odyssey would be scored with classical tracks (43m 42s)

Video: The Glide | YouTube | Luc Mehl | 3m 00s

Joyful footage of skating on Alaska's wild ice, showcasing its huge variety — from clear rivers to storm-tossed surfaces at the edge of the sea.

Puzzle: Play Nomido, the Browser’s daily word game.