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LUNCH BREAK READS

THURSDAY, APRIL 23 2026

Sponsored by | 1440 Media

Happy lunch break!

A heartfelt thank you to all of you for reading this little project of mine. In preparing for our wedding this weekend, I shared this newsletter with some friends who were blown away by the community we have created. It was incredible to talk about it directly with folks and get their reaction. It is a good reminder of why I love doing this.

Enough of the schmaltz! Enjoy these stories 😃

  • A journalist describes being grabbed off a Baghdad street, beaten with broken ribs, held by Kataib Hezbollah, and forced to record a fabricated spy confession on camera before her release.

  • Aldo Leopold killed wolves for a living until he watched one die, and spent the rest of his life arguing that a world without predators, or even mosquitoes, is a world quietly coming apart.

  • Lawrence Bishnoi has been in an Indian prison for over a decade and is allegedly still running murders across two continents, which tells you something about both the man and the government holding him.

  • Vibrio vulnificus, a bacteria that can kill within a day of entering a small cut, is spreading north along the U.S. coastline, and researchers are racing to build an early warning system before it reaches major population centers.

One last thing: we have sent 149 issues of the newsletter since we launched last year. If you’ve enjoyed even a few of them, consider making your membership into the Lunch Club official by making a contribution.

Brett

01 • ~19 Minute Read
The Atlantic Shelly Kittleson
If I Tried to Escape, I Would Be Killed
Journalist Shelly Kittleson was grabbed off a Baghdad street in March 2025, zip-tied, beaten until she had broken ribs, and held by what her captors eventually confirmed was Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-linked militia. Over roughly eight days across multiple detention sites, she was subjected to a scripted "confession" on camera, threatened with death if she refused, and forced to recite fabricated claims about spying for the U.S. embassy. She was released April 8 after the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council intervened. She writes about it in full, and says she intends to return to Iraq.
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02 • ~22 Minute Read
Aeon Shawn Simpson
No Nature Without Fear
Aldo Leopold killed wolves as a young forest ranger. Watching one die, he recognized something he spent the rest of his life unpacking: fear is not a problem ecosystems need solving, it is how they hold together. Ecologists now call this the "landscape of fear," the mechanism by which predator presence reshapes animal behavior and, in turn, vegetation, waterways, and biodiversity. Without wolves, deer populations explode and then crash. Without mosquitoes, wildernesses fill with people. Leopold's land ethic asks whether humans can tolerate the discomfort of genuine membership in the natural world, not mastery over it.
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03 • ~25 Minute Read
The Guardian Atul Dev
'Lawrence is Karma': The Gangster Who Became an Icon of Modi's India
Lawrence Bishnoi has spent over a decade in Indian custody and allegedly ran murders from his cell, including a Punjabi rapper in 2022 and a Mumbai politician in 2024. Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau named him publicly as a conduit for Indian government-sanctioned violence against Sikh separatists on Canadian soil. Indian intelligence officials privately hint the country now has the geopolitical clout to run such operations with impunity. To millions of young Indian men locked out of opportunity, Bishnoi is not a criminal but a force of consequence in a country where rule of law feels like a sucker's game.
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04 • ~17 Minute Read
Grist Zoya Teirstein
A Deadly Bacteria is Creeping Up the Atlantic Coast
Vibrio vulnificus, a bacteria that can kill within 24 hours of entering a small open wound or contaminated oyster, is spreading north along the U.S. coastline as ocean temperatures rise. Once confined to Gulf and Southern Atlantic waters, infections have been documented as far north as Maine and Connecticut. Researchers at the University of Florida are building a predictive model that flagged over 80 percent of Florida's post-hurricane Vibrio cases before they occurred. The shellfish industry, wary of bad press, has been slow to embrace the tool. Scientists say the question is no longer whether cases will increase, but by how much.
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