Six Essential Weekend Reads: From OnlyFans Legacy to Meta's 'Creepy' Glasses
Looking for something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of the most fascinating and thought-provoking pieces from the last seven days, offering a diverse range of stories that delve into technology, crime, culture, and personal narratives.
1. The OnlyFans Inheritance: A Porn Empire's Uncertain Future
Amelia Gentleman provides a compelling examination of what the death of Leonid Radvinsky, the secretive 43-year-old owner of OnlyFans, could mean for the controversial adult-content platform. This in-depth look explores the potential reshaping of the multi-billion-dollar porn money-making machine, raising questions about ownership, legacy, and the site's direction in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
2. My Mother, the Cult Leader: A Daughter's Harrowing Escape
Sarah shares her terrifying upbringing with Simon Hattenstone, detailing how her charismatic mother, Deborah Green, established a "free love ministry" in California while claiming to be a vessel for God. Behind this facade lay a controlling, cruel sadist who dictated everything from clothing to prayer times and sexual practices. This powerful account reveals Sarah's dramatic escape from what she describes as a life of imprisonment under her mother's manipulative rule.
3. Britain's Cargo Theft Crisis: 35,000 Pints of Guinness and 950 Wheels of Cheese
Stuart McGurk's entertaining and eye-opening Long Read investigates the alarming rise of cargo theft across the UK, where criminals are pilfering everything from barrels of Guinness to wheels of cheese. The piece follows one determined British police officer's efforts to combat this growing problem, shedding light on the sophisticated networks behind these thefts and the challenges of securing supply chains in modern Britain.
4. Visible from Space: Spain's Vast Greenhouse Complex
Alessandro Gandolfi's remarkable photo essay captures the staggering scale of Andalusia's greenhouse operations, which form Europe's primary vegetable garden. Covering more than 30,000 hectares—five times the size of Manhattan—this geometric labyrinth of plastic structures produces 3.5 million tons of vegetables annually, feeding half a billion people and generating over €3 billion in turnover. The complex is so extensive that it appears as a white patch visible from space on Google Maps.
5. David Chase on The Sopranos and His New LSD Epic
Nearly two decades after Tony Soprano's iconic screen fade to black, creator David Chase discusses his mob masterpiece with Stuart Heritage. Chase reveals he wrote The Sopranos to cope with his mother's harsh rejection, and now he's working on a new limited series about the CIA's controversial MKUltra programme. This interview offers rare insights into Chase's creative process and his return to television after a long hiatus.
6. Wearing Meta's Smartglasses: A Month of Feeling Like a Creep
Elle Hunt shares her unsettling experience after wearing Meta's Ray-Ban smartglasses for a month. While content creators praise the built-in camera, sceptics have dubbed them "pervert glasses." Hunt explores whether we truly need more hi-tech wearables, even with a voice assistant that sounds like Judi Dench, and concludes that the constant surveillance capability left her feeling uncomfortable and intrusive in everyday situations.
These six stories represent the best of contemporary journalism, offering readers a weekend of engaging, informative, and sometimes disturbing insights into our world.
