Took You By Surprise: John and Paul’s Lost Reunion By David Gambacorta Feature Five years after the Beatles disbanded, a period fueled by intense acrimony, Lennon and McCartney set aside their differences and got back together one more time. Inside the rollicking atmosphere of that May 1974 recording session. Friends: We Need Your Help to Fund More Stories
The No. 1 Ladies’ Defrauding Agency By Rose Eveleth Feature What a 19th-century scammer can teach us about women, lying, and economic boom-and-bust cycles
‘If an Animal Talks, I’m Sold’: An Interview with Ann and Jeff Vandermeer By Alan Scherstuhl Feature Ann and Jeff Vandermeer discuss talking animals, the weird/fantasy divide, and the ‘rate of fey’ as an organizing principle in their new anthology of classic fantasy.
Why Bugs Deserve Our Respect By Jessica Gross Feature Fruit flies helped us win six Nobel prizes in medicine. Architects have been inspired by termite hills. Ecologist Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson explains why bugs are so essential to the world we live in.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week By Longreads Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Ian Frisch, Niela Orr, Alison Fensterstock, Jill Lepore, and Austin Carr.
Exploring The Paris Underneath Paris By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Drawn to the culture of urban exploration, the author crawls through narrow tunnels under Paris so we don’t have to.
The Brazilian Healer and the Patron Saint of Impossible Causes By Leigh Hopkins Feature Leigh Hopkins faces the hidden truth about the world’s most famous spiritual surgeon and the irresistible desire to find ‘the cure.’
Editor’s Roundtable: All Things Being Unequal (Podcast) By Longreads Commentary Longreads editors discuss stories in The Cut, Columbia Review of Journalism, The New York Times, and Pacific Standard.
The Unstable Business of Higher Education By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Why are so many small American colleges like Newbury closing?
The Burdens We Carry By Amy Scheiner Feature Amy Scheiner reflects on her mother’s sudden death and what it means to be a woman in a world that is set up to bury them.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week By Longreads Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from E. Jean Carroll, Stephanie Clifford, Robert Macfarlane, Kathryn Miles, and Graphic Staff with Spencer Cliche.
The Sorrowful Mysteries, or Reasons I’m No Longer Catholic By Kathleen McKitty Harris Feature Kathleen McKitty Harris recalls the series of events which led to her departure from the Church.
Two Clocks, Running Down By Colin Dickey Feature In “Time Is a Thing the Body Moves Through,” T Fleischmann resists metaphor, even as they reflect on the metaphor-saturated work of Félix González-Torres.
Shelved: Lee Hazlewood’s Cruisin’ For Surf Bunnies By Tom Maxwell Feature It’s no surprise that the legendary songwriter and producer dabbled in surf music. What’s surprising is why music this good remained unreleased for 50 years.
Took You By Surprise: John and Paul’s Lost Reunion By David Gambacorta Feature Five years after the Beatles disbanded, a period fueled by intense acrimony, Lennon and McCartney set aside their differences and got back together one more time. Inside the rollicking atmosphere of that May 1974 recording session.
How I Became ‘Rich’ By Stacy Torres Feature During a rare opportunity to vacation in Hawai’i, Stacy Torres is forced to confront her status as better off than where she came from.
How the Cosby Story Finally Went Viral — And Why It Took So Long By Longreads Feature A journalist who reported on the accusations long before they went viral wonders, “What kind of profession am I in, where stories have no logical reason for unfolding?”
‘Nothing Kept Me Up At Night the Way the Gorgon Stare Did.’ By Sam Jaffe Goldstein Feature The Gorgon Stare, a military drone-surveillance technology that can track multiple moving targets at once, is coming to a city near you.
Yentl Syndrome: A Deadly Data Bias Against Women By Longreads Feature The science of medicine is based on male bodies, but researchers are beginning to realize how vastly the symptoms of disease differ between the sexes — and how much danger women are in.
Nestlé Is Sucking the World’s Aquifers Dry By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight The multinational corporation is gradually privatizing a natural resource.
‘If an Animal Talks, I’m Sold’: An Interview with Ann and Jeff Vandermeer By Alan Scherstuhl Feature Ann and Jeff Vandermeer discuss talking animals, the weird/fantasy divide, and the ‘rate of fey’ as an organizing principle in their new anthology of classic fantasy.
Why Bugs Deserve Our Respect By Jessica Gross Feature Fruit flies helped us win six Nobel prizes in medicine. Architects have been inspired by termite hills. Ecologist Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson explains why bugs are so essential to the world we live in.
Two Clocks, Running Down By Colin Dickey Feature In “Time Is a Thing the Body Moves Through,” T Fleischmann resists metaphor, even as they reflect on the metaphor-saturated work of Félix González-Torres.
A Manson Murder Investigation 20 Years In the Making: ‘There Are Still Secrets’ By Zan Romanoff Feature ‘Everything that Manson did with his women was exactly what the CIA was trying to do with people without their knowledge, in the exact same time, at the exact same place.’
The Shames of Men By Don Kulick Feature An anthropologist on a return visit to a remote village in Papua New Guinea learns that all the village’s young men are terribly wounded.
Editor’s Roundtable: All Things Being Unequal (Podcast) By Longreads Commentary Longreads editors discuss stories in The Cut, Columbia Review of Journalism, The New York Times, and Pacific Standard.
Editor’s Roundtable: Just Put Some Eyes On There (Podcast) By Longreads Commentary Longreads editors discuss stories in Grub Street, The New Yorker, Gay Magazine, and The Verge.
¡Ay qué niñas! By Alice Driver Feature Niños migrantes, muchos de los cuales son menores no acompañados, viajaron a la frontera de los Estados Unidos para escapar de violencia y pedir asilo. ¿Alguien está escuchando sus historias?
Oh, Girl! By Alice Driver Feature Migrant children, many of whom are unaccompanied minors, are traveling to the U.S. border to escape violence and seek asylum. Is anyone listening to their stories?
We Still Don’t Know How to Navigate the Cultural Legacy of Eugenics By Audrey Farley Feature From abortion to immigration, a long-debunked scientific movement still casts long, confusing shadows over our most fraught debates.
The Brazilian Healer and the Patron Saint of Impossible Causes By Leigh Hopkins Feature Leigh Hopkins faces the hidden truth about the world’s most famous spiritual surgeon and the irresistible desire to find ‘the cure.’
The Burdens We Carry By Amy Scheiner Feature Amy Scheiner reflects on her mother’s sudden death and what it means to be a woman in a world that is set up to bury them.
The Sorrowful Mysteries, or Reasons I’m No Longer Catholic By Kathleen McKitty Harris Feature Kathleen McKitty Harris recalls the series of events which led to her departure from the Church.
Two Clocks, Running Down By Colin Dickey Feature In “Time Is a Thing the Body Moves Through,” T Fleischmann resists metaphor, even as they reflect on the metaphor-saturated work of Félix González-Torres.
First Contact By Longreads Feature Sarah Watts details how science fiction shaped her family, her religion, and her own self-image.
