The depth and breadth of journalism

Inspired by recent museum visits I’ve been thinking about wide, superficial knowledge vs. in-depth knowledge of far fewer areas. I’ve generally found the massive collections but lack of deep, contextual story-telling museums (MoMA, Musical Instrument Museum) to be wanting. I don’t walk away with much. Conversely, the Asia Society and Met were power experiences that I’ll remember for years to come.

I’ve been noticing the same thing lately with journalism. I’ve grown less interested in reading The Economist, which offers a high-quality look at everything. Instead, I’ve been reading long essays from the New Yorker, often an hour-long read each, once a week or so.

Here are three that I’ve recently read and recommend:

1. Russia’s Espionage War in the Arctic: this long, harrowing read shows just how deep Russia’s expansionist agenda runs. Ukraine is just the beginning, and we’re in for a long few decades ahead of us. You can also forget about just replacing the bad tsar Putin with the good tsar Navalny Yashin; this is something deeply embedded in the culture.
2. Silicon Valley, the New Lobbying Monster. Even though I follow tech news, I had no idea just how terrible some of the things big tech companies do in politics are. It’s a chilling read.
3. When the Arctic Melts is not your typical global warming jeremiad. Instead, it’s a look at many of the complex feedback loops that we barely understand and an admission that we really know far less than we think we do. Despite being light on optimism, there is a sense that humanity will figure out what to do and get on with life in some form even in the worst case scenarios.

It’s still nice to spend a few minutes every few days finding out what big events have happened in the world, but there’s a real joy in giving myself some time to really dig into a New Yorker essay.