IT’S MIDWAY THROUGH the week and you want to get up to speed on the latest news topics and catch up on opinions and insights.

We’re here to help you do just that, with our three midweek longreads:

Benjamin Wallace-Wells brings us the story of a hunger strike in a US prison that involved 30,000 inmates, all of whom were in isolation. The key characters were four men who should have been rivals.

(NY Mag, approx 19 minutes reading time, 3890 words)

According to the state, these men have spent much of their lives running rival, racially aligned criminal organizations dedicated, often, to killing one another. But over a period of years, through an elaborate and extremely patient series of conversations yelled across the pod and through the concrete walls of the exercise room, the four men had formed a political alliance.

2. An oral history of Ghostbusters

Jason Matloff’s oral history of Ghostbusters is republished days after Harold Ramis, one of the stars of the 80s film, died. It’s a fascinating look back at how the comedy classic was made.

(Esquire, approx 17 minutes reading time, 3485 words)

I had lunch with Danny at Art’s Delicatessen, and I basically said, “There’s a great idea here, but the script you’ve written is impossible to make. Don’t you think we should set it on planet Earth and not in the future, which would make all the extraordinary stuff feel funnier?’

3. GSOC scandal – is it spin?

Paul Allen takes a look at the GSOC scandal, asking whether the war of words is spinning out of control. The devil, he says, is always in the detail.

(TheJournal.ie, approx 3 minutes reading time, 512 words)

The devil is in the detail, but in this political storm the facts have been buried under an avalanche of misinformation. It will take time for the rights and wrongs to be uncovered. But in the 24/7 internet-driven media coverage, time is no longer something politicians feel they have.

Want some more longreads? Then check out Sitdown Sunday>

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