A curated selection of news and stories for your midday escape.

We’ve all been there: you’ve got 20 minutes, a fork in one hand, and your phone in the other ready to scroll something while you eat. But instead of getting pulled into another doomscroll or ad-stuffed feed, why not read something that actually feeds your brain?

That’s the idea behind Lunch Break Reads: a curated newsletter of short, excellent stories sent daily. No fluff. No paywalls. Just the internet’s most interesting writing, selected for your lunch break.

Want to help support the Lunch Club? Consider buying me a cup of coffee.

Jimmy Kimmel says silencing comedians is ‘anti-American’, as his show returns to air after suspension by Adrian Horton and Anna Betts (The Guardian)

United Nations explains why the escalator stopped as soon as Trump stepped on by Abigail Williams (NBC News)

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time by James Gallagher (BBC)

Al Gore's satellite and AI system is now tracking sources of deadly soot pollution by Seth Borenstein (ABC News)

Barbara Kingsolver wrote a bestseller on opioids in Appalachia. Now she helps women fight addiction. by Taylor Sisk (CBS News)

What Happens If No One Reads by Spencer Klavan (The Free Press)

‘Sinister industry’: Kansas City company behind 7-OH & a growing opioid epidemic by David Hudnall (Kansas City Star)

Nepal’s Violent Gen Z Uprising by Kapil Komireddi (The New Yorker)

Maine wardens rescue moose trapped for hours in abandoned well (Associated Press)

12-foot statue of Trump and Epstein installed near Capitol by anonymous art collective by Heather Gustafson (WTOP)

Alligators in the sewer myth is true: City workers find out in jaw-dropping video by Ben Cost (New York Post)

Poop spray causes $55K in damage at South Carolina school; teaching assistant arrested and charged by Minyvonne Burke (NBC News)

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