Five Great Reads: how MDMA changed the world, a cricketing cult and making condoms sexy again

It’s been a long journey for MDMA, once demonisaed by sensationalist media coverage that turned the rare ecstasy deaths into moral panics. Photograph: Joe Bird/Alamy

Happy weekend readers, and congratulations – you’ve successfully navigated another half-lap around the sun. How’s your midyear report card looking? Like my beloved Canberra Raiders, I’m somehow bungling along OK.

But enough about me. Did you know MDMA was now medicine? That Bazball is a cult? That the act of putting on a condom has a name? Read on.