Safety Net

These days, when you work as a librarian in America, there is no lack of emergencies.

Editors’ Picks

My Secret Police Files

Ariel Dorfman | New York Review of Books | March 7, 2024 | 1,690 words

“What did they really know about my activism, the men who could decide whether I lived or died?”

Behind F1’s Velvet Curtain

Kate Wagner | Road & Track | March 1, 2024 | 5,474 words

“If you wanted to turn someone into a socialist you could do it in about an hour by taking them for a spin around the paddock of a Formula 1…

After the Miracle Drug

Sarah Zhang | The Atlantic | March 7, 2024 | 7,469 words

“Cystic fibrosis once guaranteed an early death—but a medical breakthrough has given many patients a chance to live decades longer than expected. What do they do now?”

Laugh Riot

Fintan O’Toole | The New York Review of Books | March 2, 2024 | 4,359 words

“To understand Trump’s continuing hold over his fans, we have to ask: Why do they find him so funny?”

S’more! S’more!

Adam Rogers | Business Insider | March 3, 2024 | 2,922 words

“His artisanal marshmallows were the greatest. Then he tried to scale them.”

Memento Mori

Tamara Kneese | The Baffler | January 8, 2024 | 3,360 words

“Surveillance is just one aspect of how a creepy gimmick has come to contend with eternity.”

The Last Days of Mezcal

Rowan Jacobsen | Bloomberg Businessweek | February 20, 2024 | 4,228 words

“Can the world’s most beautiful spirit survive its own boom?”

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Essays and Features

The Sabbath Stew

What started as a loophole has remained one of Judaism’s most evocative, redolent foods.

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Reading Lists

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Our year-end collections

The top longreads each year, selected by our editors.