Lunch Break Reads: October 13, 2025

This Grist story about valley fever hit a nerve for me because there are too many zombie movies that begin with an innocuous fungal infection. It follows how a soil-dwelling fungus in Arizona is spreading as the climate warms, infecting thousands and overwhelming doctors. The reporting connects public health failures, environmental change, and the eerie persistence of something microscopic that refuses to stay buried. It’s the kind of story that makes you want to scrub the earth off your hands.

Rachel Corbett wrestles with trauma, memory, and family in a way that’s both intimate and unflinching. It’s the kind of writing that cracks open your chest and leaves you walking away thinking differently about identity, inheritance, and how monsters are made.

The long read: Saudi Arabia’s investment in Twitter increased its influence in Silicon Valley while being used at home to shut down critics of the regime

Mother Jones examines how elite universities shape inequality through what sociologists call the “career funnel.” The piece follows Justin Portela, a low-income Stanford graduate who entered McKinsey & Company after being drawn into the recruitment system that steers top students toward consulting, finance, and tech.

Michael Mooney tells the tale of Bill Fong, a one-time amateur bowler whose life spirals into obsession, redemption, and redemption again. It’s vivid, unexpected, and full of quirky human detail, proof that even in something as ordinary as bowling, you can find drama, failure, and grace.

How two poor white kids from Detroit became the leaders of a hated and misunderstood subculture that is centred around macabre raps, face paint, Faygo and family.