Thursdays are now all about longform links on Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s linkfest including a look at why conspiracy theories are thriving in the social media age.
Books
- An excerpt from "Pure Adulteration: Cheating on Nature in the Age of Manufactured Food" by Benjamin R. Cohen (wired.com)
- Lessons learned from Yvon Chouinard's book "Let My People Go Surfing." (mastersinvest.com)
Profiles
- A profile of James Murdoch who is now on the outside looking into the News Corp. empire. (nytimes.com)
- A profile of 'Iceman' Wim Hof who has popularized the health benefits of cold exposure. (outsideonline.com)
- A big profile of lawyer-turned-banker-turned-writer Matt Levine of Bloomberg. (nytimes.com)
Policy
- Trump and the pandemic have only highlighted an already existing rift between the USA and Europe. (ft.com)
- A profile of United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer who has helped blow up US trade policy. (propublica.org)
- Gen Z may not be prepared to deal with the torrent of (election) misinformation. (politico.com)
Longreads
- Big Tech's best defense against anti-trust action is that they are 'too complex to break up.' (wsj.com)
- The bizarre story behind why Michelle Leder's finance site Footnoted went offline. (institutionalinvestor.com)
- Science works, but watching it play out in real-time in pandemic can be discouraging. (wsj.com)
- Why 'myside bias' is tough to overcome. (quillette.com)
- What happens when you call everyone in the late Jeffrey Epstein's phone book. (motherjones.com)
- The University of Southern California had 12 linebackers on its 1989 football team—five died before the age of 50. What happened? (si.com)