Lunch Break Reads: October 9, 2025

This is a wild, gripping read about a wave of self-taught criminals in Europe blowing up ATMs to steal millions. Tom Lamont follows a Dutch gang methodically teaching each other how to bomb machines, plan escape routes, and stay just ahead of law enforcement. It reads like a crime thriller but it’s all real and deeply disturbing.

This new Esquire interview with George Clooney is warm, funny, and surprisingly reflective. He talks about his new film Jay Kelly, his collaboration with Noah Baumbach, and how his perspective on work and family has shifted over the years. It’s one of those rare celebrity profiles that actually feels human, offering a glimpse of someone who’s both self-aware and still curious about what comes next.

Years after the suspicious deaths occurred at the very hospital where I spent time as a baby, I decided to investigate what happened. Had this been a mass murder or a tragic coincidence?

U.S. President Donald Trump has opened the doors of power to far-right Christian nationalists. Their goal: an American theocracy. The separation of church and state in America is at risk.

Sarah Gilman penned this haunting and lyrical story about St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea, a place that refuses to be tamed back in 2020. Sarah blends history, ecology, and personal reflection to explore how the island challenges human ambition, and Nathaniel Wilder’s photos add to the sense of awe this island inspires. It is a vivid and humbling reminder that nature holds the final word.