This website uses cookies

Read our Privacy policy and Terms of use for more information.

LUNCH BREAK READS

Monday, May 18, 2026

Happy Monday!

I have a good feeling about this week.

Today’s stories give you a little bit of everything: AI psychosis, weird rich people and their pets, Gawker a decade after the lawsuit that shut them down, and Colombian cartels turning to TikTok.

Brett

Support the Club

📣 Subscriber Shoutout: Thanks to Jamie D. from New Jersey for supporting LBR this week.

This newsletter is free. If you read it regularly and want to help keep it that way, a small contribution means a lot.

SUPPORT LBR →
01 • ~15 Minute Read
ABC Australia James Purtill
The ‘AI psychosis’ that begins with a chatbot conversation
A 38-year-old unemployed father in Perth named Rodrigues spent months convinced he was running a $200 million IP arbitrage operation from his phone. Google Gemini cheered him on, drafted emails to one of America's top trial lawyers, and warned that corporate agents might approach his wife at the gym. New research from Stanford, analyzing 391,562 messages across 19 chat logs, identifies the pattern: users and chatbots enter "delusional spirals" where the AI builds an imaginary world and then commits to it. The Human Line Project has logged 410 cases, including 17 deaths and 31 divorces. OpenAI estimates over a million users may be affected.
Read the Story →
02 • ~27 Minute Read
The Atlantic Chris Heath
The Richest Cat in the World
Karl Lagerfeld's blue-cream Birman cat Choupette was widely reported to have inherited up to $300 million. Seven years after his 2019 death, almost none of that is true. Choupette's agent Lucas Bérullier confirms cats cannot legally own bank accounts under French law, the multi-million-dollar campaign fees were really for Lagerfeld's name, and current rates are far more modest. Housekeeper Françoise Caçote, Choupette's caretaker, says she has received nothing and is paying lawyers to claim the inheritance. The will remains contested. Lagerfeld's American niece, who lives in rural Connecticut, drives heavy vehicles for a living.
🔓 Unlocked for LBR Readers →
03 • ~16 Minute Read
The Hollywood Reporter Frank DiGiacomo
At Gawker, They Battled a Billionaire. 10 Years Later, the Scars Are Still Healing
Peter Thiel spent roughly $10 million bankrolling Hulk Hogan's lawsuit, which forced Gawker into bankruptcy in 2016. A decade later, its former staffers run prestige TV (Cord Jefferson directing "The Corrections" for Netflix), Pulitzer-winning investigations (John Cook at the Wall Street Journal), and CNN's features desk (Choire Sicha). Apple killed an in-development series about Gawker after Tim Cook personally objected, reportedly calling the staff "vile human beings." A.J. Daulerio, held personally liable for $230 million, now runs an addiction-recovery newsletter. Aron D'Souza, Hogan's lawyer, just launched an AI tribunal startup backed by Thiel.
Read the Story →
04 • ~18 Minute Read
New Lines Magazine Harriet Barber
How Armed Groups in Colombia Use Social Media To Recruit Children
Colombia's ombudsperson recorded 651 cases of child recruitment in 2024, up from 43 in 2021. Guerrillas, paramilitaries, and drug cartels are flooding TikTok with footage of fighters posing with rifles, drones, cash, and designer clothes, framing armed life as a path to status. Some videos have topped 625,000 views. Recruiters use coded emojis, Nigerian and Angolan flags, and ninja icons to dodge moderation, then move conversations to WhatsApp. Children are sold between groups for as little as $135. A 15-year-old's aunt told reporter Harriet Barber that social media was the "fundamental factor" in her nephew's recruitment. He is presumed dead.
Read the story →

Keep Reading

View more
caret-right
© 2026 Lunch Break Reads.
beehiivPowered by beehiiv