The Year of the Cat By Elisabeth Donnelly Feature Elisabeth Donnelly looks back at a relationship with a wily cat during a lonely time in upstate New York. Friends: We Need Your Help to Fund More Stories
I’ve Done a Lot of Forgetting By Jordan Michael Smith Feature When I was a kid, I wanted my antisemitic tormentors to accept me. I wanted to be their friend.
Born to Be Eaten By evaholland Feature What’s at stake in the fight over development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? A caribou herd, and a culture that relies on it.
The Artificial Intelligence of the Public Intellectual By Soraya Roberts Feature Today’s public intellectuals have their own version of the American Dream, where one person, on their own, can achieve anything — including being the smartest person in the room.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week By Longreads Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from James Carroll, Cecilia D’Anastasio, Ben Steverman, Eva Holland, and Ian Brown.
And What of My Wrath? By Sara Fredman Feature Cersei Lannister could have been a great antihero, but she was on the wrong show.
House Un-American By Leslie Kendall Dye Feature On public lives, secret memoirs, and censoring the dead.
To Protect Children from Sexual Abuse, the Catholic Church Must Eliminate the Clergy By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight One ex-priest shows how the clergy lies at the root of the Catholic Church’s problems.
Who Do You Belong To? By Emily Lackey Feature When she dipped her heart into someone else’s relationship, Emily Lackey discovered how to define love on her own terms.
Editor’s Roundtable: Cities, And How They Used to be Good (Podcast) By Longreads Commentary This week, Longreads editors discuss stories in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The CT Mirror, and Engadget.
No Surgery Can Fix a Self-Defeating World View By Krista Stevens Highlight Brick had gotten a new jaw, nose, and cheekbones from a surgeon in California, costing him around $30,000, and still he was furious at women and the world.
Oklahoma: A Reading List By Jacqueline Alnes Reading List “I am leaving this state very soon, and it’s filled me with the kind of ache for understanding that so often accompanies a goodbye, a sense that I can never know quite enough.”
At Transformation By Jane Rideau Demuth Feature On the cusp of a life-changing procedure, Jane Rideau Demuth makes peace with the paths that brought her here, and the obstacles she had to wrestle with along the way.
The Great Cannabis Experiment: Ian Brown on Growing Your Own Weed By Krista Stevens Highlight Weed? Turns out it’s tricky to grow your own.
Game of Crones By Laura Lippman Feature It wasn’t entirely Laura Lippman’s idea to become a mother in her 50s. But when it happened, she leaned in hard.
Nestlé Is Sucking the World’s Aquifers Dry By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight The multinational corporation is gradually privatizing a natural resource.
Total Depravity: The Origins of the Drug Epidemic in Appalachia Laid Bare By Longreads Feature In an excerpt from his essay collection, Australian journalist Richard Cooke reports on the American opioid crisis through the astonished eyes of a foreigner visiting steel and coal country.
Critics: Endgame By Soraya Roberts Feature If there’s no earth, there’s no art. How do you engage in cultural criticism at the end of the world?
The Joy of Watching (and Rewatching) Movies So Bad They’re Good By Michael Musto Feature Michael Musto sings the praises of his favorite cinematic clunkers.
The Man Who’s Going to Save Your Neighborhood Grocery Store By Joe Fassler Feature American food supplies are increasingly channeled through a handful of big companies: Amazon, Walmart, FreshDirect, Blue Apron. What do we lose when local supermarkets go under? A lot — and Kevin Kelley wants to stop that.
I’ve Done a Lot of Forgetting By Jordan Michael Smith Feature When I was a kid, I wanted my antisemitic tormentors to accept me. I wanted to be their friend.
America Is Still Hard To Find By Lily Meyer Feature Kathleen Alcott’s latest novel is a dramatic reenactment of the ethical dilemmas posed in antiwar activist Father Daniel Berrigan’s ’60s manifesto.
Total Depravity: The Origins of the Drug Epidemic in Appalachia Laid Bare By Longreads Feature In an excerpt from his essay collection, Australian journalist Richard Cooke reports on the American opioid crisis through the astonished eyes of a foreigner visiting steel and coal country.
Odetta Holmes’ Album One Grain of Sand By Longreads Feature The singular singer released her groundbreaking album in 1963, the same year as the March on Washington, and used her art and appearance as weapons in the Civil Rights struggle.
Reimagining Harper Lee’s Lost True Crime Novel: An Interview with Casey Cep By Adam Morgan Feature “Somewhere along the way it became very clear to me that I was writing the book she never would.”
I’ve Done a Lot of Forgetting By Jordan Michael Smith Feature When I was a kid, I wanted my antisemitic tormentors to accept me. I wanted to be their friend.
How Refugees Die By Longreads Feature Wars and heightened border security have created a humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean.
Editors Roundtable: 170 Million Pieces of Trash Orbiting the Earth and No One Knows How to Use an Apostrophe (Podcast) By Longreads Commentary This week, Longreads editors discuss stories in Outside Magazine, Backchannel (WIRED), and The New York Times: Styles.
‘Give It Up For My Sister’: Beyonce, Solange, and The History of Sibling Acts in Pop By Danielle Jackson Feature Family dynasties are neither new nor newly influential in pop.
Technology Is as Biased as Its Makers By Longreads Feature From exploding Ford Pintos to racist algorithms, all harmful technologies are a product of unethical design. Yet, like car companies in the ’70s, today’s tech companies would rather blame the user.
The Artificial Intelligence of the Public Intellectual By Soraya Roberts Feature Today’s public intellectuals have their own version of the American Dream, where one person, on their own, can achieve anything — including being the smartest person in the room.
The Year of the Cat By Elisabeth Donnelly Feature Elisabeth Donnelly looks back at a relationship with a wily cat during a lonely time in upstate New York.
I’ve Done a Lot of Forgetting By Jordan Michael Smith Feature When I was a kid, I wanted my antisemitic tormentors to accept me. I wanted to be their friend.
Who Do You Belong To? By Emily Lackey Feature When she dipped her heart into someone else’s relationship, Emily Lackey discovered how to define love on her own terms.
At Transformation By Jane Rideau Demuth Feature On the cusp of a life-changing procedure, Jane Rideau Demuth makes peace with the paths that brought her here, and the obstacles she had to wrestle with along the way.