IT’S A DAY of rest, and you may be in the mood for a quiet corner and a comfy chair.
We’ve hand-picked the week’s best reads for you to savour.
A woman called Carrie Jade Williams claims her Airbnb guests said her disability aids offended them – her TikTok videos about it spark off a cascade of events that end up with her very identity being questioned.
(Vice, approx 22 mins reading time)
Everything seemed to be going so well for Williams. Despite challenging circumstances, she was flourishing as a writer and creator. Friends said she was a “lovely person,” an inspirational figure living with Huntington’s Disease. Except that Carrie Jade Williams does not exist.
Will McCarthy looks at the real-life stories behind Google Reviews.
(Longreads, approx 12 mins reading time)
Google Reviews taps you into a nearly infinite community of people who have, out of the goodness of their hearts, shared their experiences so that others might learn from them. It’s like having millions of friends around the world who can give you a reliable recommendation on literally anything. But in reality, it’s not always like that.
William Fear reports from a 12-hour shift on an understaffed NHS ward.
(The Guardian, approx 18 mins reading time)
We take handover from the exhausted night team, jotting down basic information about each patient, and begin our shift. The ward I’m on is supposed to be for people with broken bones, but we have had to take several neurological patients, after one of the neuro wards was closed due to a Covid outbreak.
Interviews with people on the brink of homelessness in LA, as its new mayor declares a housing state of emergency in the city.
(Capital and Main (part one))
Sarah’s grandmother says that her granddaughter has always been welcome to stay in the cluttered garage, but the situation is more complicated. Sarah’s cigarette-smoking mom, who wrestles with breathing problems — as her oxygen mask makes clear — already lives in there.
The Sierra Madre rainforest is in the Philippines, but 90% of it is gone due to illegal logging, mining and quarrying. Here is an interview with people who depend on the forest and who try to save it.
(BBC, approx 9 mins reading time)
Like rainforests everywhere, this one too is home to a conflict between those desperate to make a living and those desperate to preserve life. And the risk of that conflict becoming deadly is high.
An ICU health worker in the USA looks at the amazing things ICU can do for people – and how it has a ‘dark side’ too.
(The Baffler, approx 24 mins reading time)
In a strange sense, Covid showed us what the ICU was made to do. But today, as we envision health care in a post-pandemic world, we need to grapple more honestly with another reality; the ICU has a dark side too.
…AND A CLASSIC FROM THE ARCHIVES…
In 2005, an alternate reality game encouraged people to find a man based on a photograph – it took 15 years to solve the mystery.
(Wired, approx 26 mins reading time)
That was when it hit me,” he recounted later on his website. “That was when I knew I’d found the Cube.” Four days later, Darley walked into the office of Mind Candy, a gaming company based in London, to present his find and claim a £100,000 prize.
Note: The Journal generally selects stories that are not paywalled, but some might not be accessible if you have exceeded your free article limit on the site in question.
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