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Recommended Writing

All longform pieces recommended on The Slow Scroll

The Shrouded, Sinister History Of The Bulldozer
Noema20 Feb 2025 • ~9300 words

The history of the bulldozer is darker than you might think, and its evolution goes beyond simple construction and demolition. Joe Zadeh explores its origins in violent voter suppression, to its weaponization in war and state-sanctioned home demolitions, and how it has been a sym...

The Future Looks Ratty
bioGraphic19 Feb 2025 • ~1850 words

Urban rats are thriving in a warming world, and the implications are troubling. As temperatures rise, rate are finding more opportunities to eat and reproduce, leading to a surge in sightings across major cities like New York and Washington, D.C. Benji Jones explores the links be...

Grave Mistakes: The History and Future of Chile’s ‘Disappeared’
Undark Magazine19 Feb 2025 • ~9150 words

As Chile commemorated the 50th anniversary of Augusto Pinochet's coup, President Gabriel Boric's unveiling of the National Search Plan aimed to confront painful historical wounds. The initiative seeks to find the remains of many Chileans who disappeared during the regime, but tru...

The Cryptocurrency Scam That Turned a Small Town Against Itself
New York Times19 Feb 2025 • ~3900 words

In a major cryptocurrency scam, Shan Hanes, the president of a small Kansas town bank, made unauthorized wire transfers totaling over $47 million. He converted the funds into cryptocurrencies, only to lose them to a crypto crime network. The town has been left devastated by the l...

Democratic Decarbonization?
Phenomenal World17 Feb 2025 • ~5550 words

Ben Kodres-O’Brien reviews Sandeep Vaheesan's new book, "Democracy in Power: A History of Electrification in the United States." The book explores the dominance of corporate interests in electricity generation, advocating for a more democratic approach to decarbonization.

Art Adviser. Friend. Thief.
New York Times18 Feb 2025 • ~3050 words

Lisa Schiff, once a prominent art adviser, now faces the possibility of two decades in prison for stealing millions from her clients. This piece not only recounts how this happened, but also how Schiff reflects on her descent.

Turkey said it would become a ‘zero waste’ nation. Instead, it became a dumping ground for Europe’s rubbish
The Guardian18 Feb 2025 • ~4200 words

Despite committing to become a "zero waste" nation, Turkey has become a dumping ground for Europe’s plastic waste, with dire consequences for local farmers and the environment. Alexander Clapp reports on how much of the imported plastic is either burned, dumped illegally, or con...

Why Place-Names Matter
Pioneer Works05 Feb 2025 • ~4750 words

Names are not just labels; they carry stories, power, and cultural memory. In this excerpt from his book, “Names of New York,” Joshua Jelly-Schapiro invites us to reconsider how the names we encounter daily affect our perceptions and connections to the places we inhabit.

Breakfast for Eight Billion
The New Atlantis14 Feb 2025 • ~3600 words

In the 1980s, a significant shift occurred in global food production, allowing the average person to access enough calories for the first time in history. Charles C. Mann explores how innovations from the Green Revolution, particularly advances in fertilization, irrigation, and g...

‘Here Lives the Monster’s Brain’: The Man Who Exposed Switzerland’s Dirty Secrets
The Guardian13 Feb 2025 • ~3850 words

Atossa Araxia Abrahamian writes about how Jean Ziegler has spent the past 60 years exposing how Switzerland enabled global wrongdoing.