Like podcasts, but for your eyes

Utterly compelling real-life stories that scour the outer reaches of human behaviour, for better or worse. This list is not sponsored by Squarespace.

Action Park, by Andy Mulvihill

The story behind America’s least stringent theme park: a combination of horrifying safety records, insane security policies, cheap Oktoberfest booze and terrific weather.

Another Day In The Death Of America, by Gary Younge

Stark and utilitarian, but agonisingly beautiful: Gary Younge simply and sympathetically pays tribute to the young victims of gun violence during one single day in America.

Going Dark, by Julia Ebner

We cannot salute Julia Ebner’s journalistic gumption enough as she inveigles herself into the unsurprisingly wretched world of online extremism, from gnarly Nazi punk festivals and trad-wives to internet terrorism workshops.

Notes From An Apocalypse, by Mark O’Connell

Dryly humorous and compelling humane dispatches from the people who are trying to safeguard themselves from the end of the world, from doomsday preppers to tech billionaires buying up huge chunks of New Zealand to ride out the apocalypse in comfort.

The Zookeepers’ War, by J.W. Mohnhaupt

Eye-widening history of the power struggle between the major zoos in East and West Germany as they sought to outdo one another. Reads like a Cold War thriller, but with an elephant wedged into a train carriage.

My Friend Anna, by Rachel DeLoache Williams

The heart-botheringly tense story of Anna Delvey, the conwoman who turned the better nature of countless friends and acquaintances to her quite unbelievable advantage. Feel your cheeks redden with embarrassment and disbelief in real time!

Catch and Kill, by Ronan Farrow

Reads like a spy thriller, but it’s painfully, painfully true: Ronan Farrow’s determined pursuit of Harvery Weinstein makes for some brutal and uncomfortable conclusions about the power of celebrity and the complicity of those around it.

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