A Vor Never Sleeps By Garrett Graff Feature The shadowy world of Russian organized crime in America. Friends: We Need Your Help to Fund More Stories
We Are Scientists By Aaron Gilbreath Feature A scientist examines the connections between his Indian immigrant father and the brilliant but overlooked Indian scientist Yellapragada Subbarow.
Exodus in the Ozarks By Pam Mandel Feature At a theater in Branson, Missouri, Pam Mandel finds an unexpected plot twist in a very familiar story.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week By Longreads Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Jennifer Gonnerman, Evan Allen, Britni de la Cretaz, Jen Banbury, and Gordon Edgar.
Small-Town New Hampshire’s Battle with Bears and Liberty By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Grafton, New Hampshire has a bear problem, but how much of the problem is the result of human behavior?
Cheese and Macaroni Do Not a Mac and Cheese Make By Ben Huberman Highlight On the complex history and triumphant ubiquity of America’s most comforting staple.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Reckons with Fame By Danielle Jackson Highlight In a New Yorker profile, the MacArthur ‘genius’ considers her legacy.
‘Unfettered Glamour’: The Legendary Career of André Leon Talley By Danielle Jackson Highlight The highs and lows of André Leon Talley’s important, trailblazing career are traced in a new documentary about his life.
England Is a Giant Russian Money Washing Machine By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Russian money is parked in English real estate and other assets, but is it too late to purge its influence on Britain?
What Is the Hot Commodity, Exactly? By Michelle Weber Highlight You say seaweed, I say fish, let’s call the whole harvest off. Welcome to the most interesting article on legal tensions around seaweed harvesting in Maine you’ll read all week, and maybe ever.
The Hole in My Soul By Sara Eckel Feature Sara Eckel surprised her agnostic parents by becoming a born-again Christian at age 10. It was the first of many attempts to believe.
Across the World in 80 Days By Katie Kosma Highlight People are building rockets to propel themselves miles high so they can look down and confirm the disk-shaped flatness of our planet.
How to Ruin the Scripps Spelling Bee in Four Letters: E-S-P-N By Krista Stevens Highlight At the Scripps Spelling Bee, no one asks for whom the bell tolls. It’s glaringly, if painfully obvious.
How American Women’s Pro Baseball Kept Lesbians in the Closet By Krista Stevens Highlight “Play like a man, look like a lady.” At Narratively, Britni de la Cretaz looks at the history of lesbianism in early pro women’s baseball and at the beautiful love stories that the movie “A League of Their Own” chose to ignore.
Queens of Infamy: Anne Boleyn By Anne Thériault Feature In Tudor England’s big-sleeved game of thrones, winning and dying were not mutually exclusive.
Tax-Free Storage Wars By Atossa Araxia Abrahamian Feature Arcis is a new art storage facility in Harlem that offers its clients a Foreign Trade Zone. But are they selling the art world a luxury tax haven, or just banking on confusion?
A True (Non-Hierarchical, Shared) Love By Mithila Phadke Feature Journalist Mithila Phadke navigates polyamory while falling in love for the first time.
A Chance to Rewrite History: The Women Fighters of the Tamil Tigers By Longreads Feature How during a brutal, 25-year civil war in Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers failed the women soldiers who sacrificed everything to fight for a sovereign state for the Tamil minority.
But What Will Your Parents Think? By Morgan Jerkins Feature Morgan Jerkins tackles the time-worn question of how far is too far to go in revealing yourself in first-person writing.
The Hole in My Soul By Sara Eckel Feature Sara Eckel surprised her agnostic parents by becoming a born-again Christian at age 10. It was the first of many attempts to believe.
Somewhere Under My Left Ribs: A Nurse’s Story By Longreads Feature The landscape of operating theaters must be terrifying for patients, but it’s becoming normal for me. It’s amazing what you can get used to.
‘I Was a Storm of Confetti’: Michael Pollan On Why It’s a Good Idea To Lose Your Self By Hope Reese Feature Michael Pollan talks about using psychedelic drugs, escaping his own ego, and the therapeutic potential of seeing yourself spread out over the landscape like a coat of paint.
Nell Battle Lewis, Storyteller for Jim Crow By Longreads Feature How an otherwise high-minded social reformer preserved and perpetuated her white supremacist worldview.
Masters of Contradiction By Brittany Allen Feature Two new books offer fresh perspective on “Otherhood,” that condition in which characters do constant, exhausting battle — for the most part — inside their own heads.
The Whole World is Naples Now By Michelle Weber Highlight Sprawling, crumbling, beautiful, rough — Elena Ferrante’s Naples shows us the world’s violent underbelly, with no pretense.
England Is a Giant Russian Money Washing Machine By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Russian money is parked in English real estate and other assets, but is it too late to purge its influence on Britain?
The ‘Treasonous’ Teens Living in One Nation Under Guns By Danielle Tcholakian Commentary Three stories on youth activism in conservative towns shed an interesting light on the national gun debate.
Stacey Abrams’ Historic Win in Georgia: A Reading List By Danielle Jackson Reading List Stacey Abrams’ win in Georgia could put one of the U.S.’s most populous red states in play for progressives for the first time in decades.
Exodus in the Ozarks By Pam Mandel Feature At a theater in Branson, Missouri, Pam Mandel finds an unexpected plot twist in a very familiar story.
The Hole in My Soul By Sara Eckel Feature Sara Eckel surprised her agnostic parents by becoming a born-again Christian at age 10. It was the first of many attempts to believe.
You Are What Your Fingerprint Says You Are By Michelle Weber Highlight As passports give way to fingerprinting and retinal scans, our bodies themselves become tools to limit our free movement.
A Tiny Scar, From Falling By Lara B. Sharp Feature Lara B. Sharp’s efforts to gather information about what happened to her in foster care and as a ward of the state turn up nothing but incorrect records.
Politics and Prose By Marie Myung-Ok Lee Feature Marie Myung-Ok Lee finds herself conflicted about attending a controversial author’s reading and wonders: what does “speaking up” actually mean?