Comedy duos, WH Auden and radio contests
The most read stories of the week from the Gentle Reader community
Stories that went wide and deep enthralled Gentle Readers this week. Spanning geographies and histories, the most read pieces were all long, engaging and illuminating.
Every week, Gentle Readers use our app to discover and enjoy the most compelling writing the internet has to offer. You can see what they loved reading below. The links will open in the Gentle Reader app, a quiet place to catch up on the week's best reads.
The week’s top Gentle Reads
Half Glitzy, Half Dowdy
Charlie Higson, TLS
A curious history of the comedy double act
On Not Owing
Sophie Helf, Medium
The overwhelming urge to be “boring” as a disabled woman
Auden on No-Platforming Pound
Edward Mendelson, New York Review of Books
When W.H. Auden’s publisher decided to exclude Ezra Pounds poetry from an anthology, because of Pounds fascism and racism, Auden said he would change publishers
The Astronomical Cost of Clean Air in Bangkok
Pitchaya Sudbanthad, LitHub
Almost everything in Bangkok eventually becomes smoke
Last Exit From Brexit?
Owen Matthews, Foreign Policy
Labour and Conservative leaders take a sudden U-turn on separation from the EU
She Never Looks Back
Nick Bilton, Longform
Inside Elizabeth Holmes's Chilling Final Months at Theranos
The Strange Death of Municipal England
Tom Crewe, LRB
Tom Crewe on an assault on local government
How Israel’s Moon Lander Got to the Launchpad
Kenneth Chang, New York Times
With $100 million and a lot of volunteer labor, SpaceIL’s Beresheet spacecraft could be the first privately built vessel to reach the lunar surface.
Billboard Boys: The Greatest Radio Contest of All Time
Vivian Le, 99% Invisible
A small Pennsylvania radio station offers listeners the chance to win a modular house and triggers a battle of endurance that grips the nation
Lyndon LaRouche's March to Nowhere
Scott McLemee, Jacobin Magazine
Remembering the bizarre self-publicist and conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche, who has died aged 96
When Kodak Accidentally Discovered A-Bomb Testing
Matt Blitz, Popular Mechanics
Two thousand miles away from the U.S. A-bomb tests in 1945, something weird was happening to Kodak's film
Also this week Gentle Reader Ltd announced its business platform - signal.FISH Actionable Intelligence. Live (Alerting, Acquisition, Enrichment and Auto Curation from Global News using AI/ML )