Longform links: a built environment

Thursdays are all about longform links on Abnormal Returns. Wherever possible, free links for premium sites are used. You can check out last week’s linkfest including a look at a potential SpaceX IPO. Quote of the Day "The people who cannot sit through novels aren’t broken. They’re adapted to an environment we built." (Carlo Iacono) Books - An excerpt from "After Covid: The Health Impacts That Will Last Generations" by Jason Gale. (bloomberg.com) - David Epstein talks with Olga Khazan, author of "Me, But Better: The Science and Promise of Personality Change." (davidepstein.substack.com) - A profile of Tom Junod, author of "In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man: A Memoir." (nytimes.com) Business - The story of Reddit ($RDDT). (quartr.com) - A profile of Grab Holdings ($GRAB) the Southeast Asian super app. (fiscal.ai) Global - Finland understand the threat from Russia. (bloomberg.com) - How the petrostates are vulnerable in a future world less dependent on oil. (unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com) - Is China fudging its poverty numbers? (ft.com) Environment - What happens when big chunks of the world are simply uninsurable? (aeon.co) - Corpus Christi, Texas has a water problem. (texastribune.org) History - The history of nuclear power in the U.S. begins with Admiral Hyman Rickover. (worksinprogress.news) - An excerpt from "Safe Passage: The Untold Story of Diplomatic Intrigue, Betrayal, and the Exchange of American and Japanese Civilians by Sea During World War II" by Evelyn Iritani. (smithsonianmag.com) Entertainment - How Pixar lost its way. (thebaffler.com) - How The Sphere works. (readtrung.com) - How (why?) James Patterson feeds his publishing machine. (bloomberg.com) Sports - An oral history of the Sloan Sports Analytics conference. (theringer.com) - How the PGA Tour turned A $1 swamp, i.e. Sawgrass, and a $150 million a year business. (huddleup.substack.com) Longreads - How the destruction of the middle class affects everyone. (yourbrainonmoney.substack.com) - Why American universities have failed to see a backlash coming. (newyorker.com) - Why reducing the cost of CAR-T therapy would be such a big deal. (newyorker.com) - Humans have been debating the mind-body connection forever. (theatlantic.com) - Another example of Elon Musk's hype machine gone wrong. (washingtonian.com) - How to spot a huckster. (investing101.substack.com)