This week for BuzzReads, Gemma de Choisy profiles a rural pastor who’s fighting the law to continue handling deadly snakes. Read that and these other great stories from BuzzFeed and the rest of the web.
Serpentecostal: Andrew Hamblin Would Rather Die or Go to Jail Than Give Up Handling Snakes — BuzzFeed
As part of a traditional Appalachian sect, the 22-year-old church leader illegally handled venomous snakes — and starred on the reality TV show Snake Salvation — until wildlife authorities seized them all. Risking his life and his livelihood, he’s taking a stand in the name of Jesus, and, he argues, in the name of religious freedom. Read it at BuzzFeed.
Photograph by Shawn Poynter for BuzzFeed
Jesse Willms: The Dark Lord of the Internet — The Atlantic
Taylor Clark profiles the biggest Internet tycoon you've never heard of (but who's ads like one for a "weird trick to cut belly fat" you've probably ignored for years). "Now 26 and already having made and lost multiple fortunes, Jesse Willms provides us with a perfect symbol of the savage landscape of online commerce." Read it at The Atlantic.
Grant Harder / Via theatlantic.com
A Speck in the Sea — New York Times Magazine
An incredible piece of reporting by Paul Tough about a Long Island fisherman named John Aldridge who was thrown off his boat. "Everyone knew the odds: a man overboard, that far off the coast, would very likely never be found alive." Read it at the New York Times Magazine.
Daniel Shea for The New York Times
Remote Control — The Believer
A fascinating essay by Sarah Marshall about the spectacle of female power. Twenty years later, she reconsiders story of Tonya Harding and the attack against Nancy Kerrigan. Read it at The Believer.
Pascal Rondeau / Getty
