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.

1. Ultra-marathon cheats’ redemption

In 1999, twin brothers in South Africa cheated in an ultra marathon by swapping clothes halfway through the race. 

(Insider, approx 15 mins reading time)

Eugene was charmed by the brothers’ drive to show what they could do on a bigger stage. “A runner can always recognize another runner,” Eugene tells me. “They were the best in Phuthaditjhaba. At all the races they entered, they won them by far.” Sergio, he says, “had the style, the strength, the everything.” 

2. Going slow

Is slow running better than fast running?

(Slate, approx 11 mins reading time)

The more I looked, the more I started seeing other coaches advising that athletes slow down their paces—to cover up their watch face with tape if they have to, and especially, to quit looking at other people’s splits on social media. This directive isn’t about fostering a more inclusive running community; that’s just a side benefit.

3. Jack Monroe

An interesting profile of the often lauded, sometimes criticised poverty and food campaigner.

(The Guardian, approx 24 mins reading time)

There is a big difference today though, she insists. “Two years ago if I’d sat down on my bed and fallen asleep and woken up hours later, I would have just gone, fuck it, got a bottle of whisky and emerged a month later.” She’s talking 19 to the dozen. How did she feel when she saw the time? “I cried. I just cried my eyes out. I thought everyone was going to be really angry. I couldn’t stop crying the whole way. The cab driver must have thought I was running away from home.”

4. The Delays

Fans of the British band The Delays were devastated to hear about the death of lead singer/guitarist Greg Gilbert. Here, his brother talks about their relationship.

(The Guardian, approx 7 mins reading time)

The brothers both suffered bouts of anxiety and depression – “we were a train crash, man” – but found that writing uplifting songs with melancholy lyrics helped ease the burden. One time, an 18-year-old Aaron woke up from a dream about a creaking door and rushed out of bed to try to capture the sound of it. It was 3.30am when he woke Greg up to tell him.

5. Netflix

A profile of Bela Bajaria, who oversees TV-making at Netflix – which gives a fascinating insight into how things work at the streamer.

(The New Yorker, approx 38 mins reading time)

Bajaria told me that the ideal Netflix show is what one of her V.P.s, Jinny Howe, calls a “gourmet cheeseburger,” offering something “premium and commercial at the same time.” She praised the Latin American group for its recent track record of making slick telenovelas that draw large audiences outside Spanish-speaking regions.

6. Tár

This week we had an interview (by yours truly) with the incredible actresses Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss about their latest movie, Tár.

(The Journal, approx 5 mins reading time)

I don’t think there was ever a safety net with the whole thing; getting up in front of the Dresden Philharmonic and conducting those rehearsal scenes, I felt definitely in peril!” But she described it as “a dance you’re always dancing, with the camera crew, with the other actors in the scene, with the musicians in the scene, and with Todd.

…AND A CLASSIC FROM THE ARCHIVES…

A piece from 2020 on Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music.

(The New Yorker, approx mins reading time)

He painted, made experimental films, practiced occult alchemy (he was ordained in the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, a spiritual group affiliated with the magician and self-appointed prophet Aleister Crowley), and believed that the careful accumulation and ordering of things could bring about new knowledge.

 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.