This week’s TAMIM Reading List offers a captivating blend of history, finance, and culture. Discover the secrets to winning a Nobel Prize, alongside surprising reactions from laureates after their big moment. We explore whether investment giants like Vanguard and BlackRock wield too much influence, and dive into McDonald’s international culinary experiments with items like macarons. Journey through the coal-powered age of invention and learn about the strange world of “ant geopolitics.” We also examine a mysterious $7 billion donation to the U.S. and trace the cultural history of cocaine from medical marvel to illicit drug. Each article provides insights into the forces shaping our world.

📚 How to win a Nobel prize

📚 ‘You mean I have to stop my experiment?’ Not all Nobel laureates react the way you might expect 

📚 Do Vanguard, Blackrock, and State Street Run the World?

📚 McDonald’s Macarons

📚 Age of Invention: The Coal Conquest

📚 Ant geopolitics

📚 Who died and left the US $7 billion? 

📚 An undulating thrill: Once lauded as a wonder of the age, cocaine soon became the object of profound anxieties. What happened?