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Longreads features

Into the Darkness

Germanyโ€™s Black Forest faces a future of transformation. So do the people who have lived there for centuries.

My Unlikely Existence

Is AI helping prospective parents game the fertility lottery? Should it?

An Internet of Checkpoints

A mysterious YouTube video gave thousands of people a place to breathe. Then it vanished.

35 and 1

A brother lost, a son born, and the strange arithmetic of love.

Vigilantes at Dawn

A forgotten deportation, a family archive, and the cost of belonging.

The Endless Self

Exploring animal life beyond the limits of human understanding.

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Recent editors’ picks

Thinking in the Margins

Bill Hayes | The American Scholar | March 2, 2026 | 2,229 words

“What Oliver Sacks jotted down in the books he read.”

Degrees of Separation

Maya Rosen | Jewish Currents | November 2, 2025 | 5,305 words

“Israelโ€™s new international college programs offer American students an escape from campus activism while training them as state cheerleaders.”

In Search of Banksy

Simon Gardner, James Pearson, and Blake Morrison | Reuters | March 13, 2026 | 5,911 words

“The British street artistโ€™s identity has been debated, and closely guarded, for decades. A quest to solve the riddle took Reuters from a bombed-out Ukrainian village to London and downtownโ€ฆ

Jeff Mills Loves to Forget

Russell E. L. Butler | Pioneer Works Broadcast | March 11, 2026 | 3,316 words

“How technoโ€™s most vaunted architect is still building sonic futures.”

The Afterlife of a Stolen Bike

Iain Treloar | Escape Collective | March 5, 2026 | 4,556 words

“22 bikes a day are stolen in Melbourne. I decided to buy one to return it to its rightful owner.”

Beneath the Long White Cloud

Sean Williams | Now Voyager | March 12, 2026 | 5,275 words

“The search for the eighth wonder of the world.”

What 100 Million Volts Do to the Body and Mind

Jacob Stern | The Atlantic | March 16, 2026 | 3,814 words

“The odds of being struck by lightning in America in a given year are one in 1.2 million. How does the experience reorient a personโ€™s sense of chance, of fate?”

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Weekly Top 5

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Excerpts from The Atavist Magazine, our sister publication

The Dark and Stormy Tale of a ShantyTok Band

When a scraggly band of folk musicians arrived to tour the UK, residents of a small Welsh town were enamoredโ€”until they learned that the bandโ€™s leader ruled with an iron fist.

Anatomy of Absolute Power

The people of Wilcox County, Alabama, remember a longtime sheriff as a god or a monsterโ€”it just depends on who you ask.

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