Against Hustle: Jenny Odell Is Taking Her Time at the End of the World By Rebecca McCarthy Feature The attention economy is killing us and the planet. Artist and writer Jenny Odell talks about why slowing down could be the only way to survive. Friends: We Need Your Help to Fund More Stories
The Politics of UFOs By Anna Merlan Feature In the past few years the world of UFO “researchers” has been afflicted by the kinds of conspiratorial cracks that have appeared throughout American culture: Who can be trusted?
Your Turn By Longreads Feature Damon Young looks back at his family’s journey toward homeownership, and what that can really mean when you’re black in America.
‘Writers tell’: The Devastating Contrasts in Life, Death, and West Virginia By Krista Stevens Highlight “Twelve years later, I birthed my son on my sister’s death day.”
Racism in Romance, or Why Is the Duke Always White By Michelle Weber Highlight White people: how many people still think “Fabio!” when they hear “romance novel,” raise your hands. Thought so.
This Is Why No One Answers the Phone Anymore By Michelle Weber Highlight Robocalls are a scourge, and it’s only a matter of time before the technology learns to spoof your mother’s voice.
At the Maacher Bazaar, Fish For Life By Madhushree Ghosh Feature Madhushree Ghosh continues to honor her late parents’ memory…through the simple act of making fish curry.
Zuckerberg’s Trash Is a Subculture’s Treasure By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight An entire subculture of Bay Area residents survives by reselling wealthy residents’ trash.
Gone Today, Here Tomorrow By Michelle Weber Commentary In Xi Jinping’s China, “tens of thousands of people have disappeared into the maw of the police state,” including global movie star Fan Bingbing.
‘I Don’t Think Those Feelings of Self-Doubt Ever Go Away.’ By Amy Brady Feature Susan Choi talks about feeling unsure of oneself, as a writer, as a performer — or as a victim — and about how her latest novel evolved in uncanny tandem with the real world.
Family Animals By Longreads Feature In an excerpt from her new memoir, Grace Talusan fondly remembers the badly behaved dog that won her skeptical father’s heart.
MACHO: On Black Holes, and the Fantasies of Men By Frances Dodds Feature Frances Dodds recalls two men who laid bare the fragile lines between desire, pain and manipulation — and questions the framework of her own fantasies.
The Curious Tale of the Salish Sea Feet By Kea Krause Feature To date, 21 disembodied feet have washed up on the shores of Seattle’s Salish Sea. What at first looked like the work of a serial killer turned out to be something even more unsettling: A message from the ocean about who we are.
Is It Ever Too Late to Pursue a Dream? By Matt Giles Feature Dan Stoddard believes there is room in the NBA for a 42-year-old rookie.
A Three-Day Expedition To Walk Across Paris Entirely Underground By Longreads Feature Journalist Will Hunt, who made the crossing with a group of urban explorers, recounts being menaced by rainwater and rats — and meeting fellow subterranean wanderers along the way.
On Flooding: Drowning the Culture in Sameness By Soraya Roberts Feature Flooding (v.): Unleashing a mass torrent of the same stories by the same storytellers at the same time, making it almost impossible for anyone but the same select few to rise to the surface.
10 Outstanding Short Stories to Read in 2018 By Longreads Reading List Must-read stories from Han Kang, Porochista Khakpour, and Min Jin Lee.
The Curious Tale of the Salish Sea Feet By Kea Krause Feature To date, 21 disembodied feet have washed up on the shores of Seattle’s Salish Sea. What at first looked like the work of a serial killer turned out to be something even more unsettling: A message from the ocean about who we are.
Orwell’s Last Neighborhood By Longreads Feature While envisioning the darkest of futures and grappling with mortality, the English writer retreated to an idyllic Scottish isle to write Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Racism in Romance, or Why Is the Duke Always White By Michelle Weber Highlight White people: how many people still think “Fabio!” when they hear “romance novel,” raise your hands. Thought so.
Against Hustle: Jenny Odell Is Taking Her Time at the End of the World By Rebecca McCarthy Feature The attention economy is killing us and the planet. Artist and writer Jenny Odell talks about why slowing down could be the only way to survive.
The Politics of UFOs By Anna Merlan Feature In the past few years the world of UFO “researchers” has been afflicted by the kinds of conspiratorial cracks that have appeared throughout American culture: Who can be trusted?
Your Turn By Longreads Feature Damon Young looks back at his family’s journey toward homeownership, and what that can really mean when you’re black in America.
‘I Don’t Think Those Feelings of Self-Doubt Ever Go Away.’ By Amy Brady Feature Susan Choi talks about feeling unsure of oneself, as a writer, as a performer — or as a victim — and about how her latest novel evolved in uncanny tandem with the real world.
The American Worth Ethic By Bryce Covert Feature Like so many of our lofty ideals, the “American Work Ethic” is actually two different standards — one for the wealthy and one for the poor — with two different interpretations of what work looks like.
‘There’s Virtually No Conversation In Chicago … About the Aftershocks of the Violence.’ By Hope Reese Feature In “An American Summer,” journalist Alex Kotlowitz tries to report on gun deaths on Chicago’s South Side with the same attention to survivors, anniversaries, and aftershocks that is paid to mass shootings.
The Manhandling of Rock ‘N’ Roll History By Evelyn McDonnell Feature Less than 8 percent of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s inductees are women. Time for it to step up and induct an all-female class in 2020.
An American City, Inhabited Yet Abandoned By Michelle Weber Highlight “Not a single person was killed on the day of the rioting. But the following month, May, would conclude with 41 homicides — the most the city had experienced in a month since the 1970s.”
The Power of a Neighborhood’s Name By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight When Google Maps’ data renamed an African American neighborhood, it opened up residents to the looming forces of gentrification.
At the Maacher Bazaar, Fish For Life By Madhushree Ghosh Feature Madhushree Ghosh continues to honor her late parents’ memory…through the simple act of making fish curry.
Family Animals By Longreads Feature In an excerpt from her new memoir, Grace Talusan fondly remembers the badly behaved dog that won her skeptical father’s heart.
MACHO: On Black Holes, and the Fantasies of Men By Frances Dodds Feature Frances Dodds recalls two men who laid bare the fragile lines between desire, pain and manipulation — and questions the framework of her own fantasies.
Other Rachel Lyons By Rachel Lyon Feature Having a fairly common name gives Rachel Lyon occasional glimpses into the lives of her doppelgangers — and the roads she has not taken.
The Unreliable Reader By Wei Tchou Feature In Esmé Weijun Wang’s book of personal essays, “The Collected Schizophrenias,” it’s the reader, not the writer, who is an unreliable narrator.