Longreads

C. Everett Koop was not a moderate man. He was not a Democrat and he was not particularly democratic, either. He could be gruff, unpleasant, and dismissive. I doubt he and I agreed on any political…

Karl Popper in the 1980s. Courtesy of the London School of Economics Library/Flickr/Wikipedia This article arises from Future Tense, a partnership of Slate, the New America Foundation, and Arizona…

How to live in a world where your trash bin can talk back. Would you like all of your Facebook friends to sift through your trash? A group of designers from Britain and Germany think that you might.…

Story — From the March 2013 issue By Alexander Maksik Download Pdf MicroFiche

This week's Longreads Member pick is "Contest of Words," Ben Lerner's October 2012 essay from Harper's Magazine. Lerner is author of the award-winning 2011 novel Leaving the Atocha Station and three books of poetry: The Lichtenberg Figures, Angle of Yaw and Mean Free Path.

The story comes recommended by Matt O'Rourke, a longtime Longreads community member and creative director for Wieden and Kennedy in Portland (he also runs the Twitter account @fuckyesreading).

Support Longreads—and get more stories like this—by becoming a member for just $3 per month.

Friday, February 15, 2013 at 11:08AM Alex in THE WORLD, durga chew-bose Family Vacation by DURGA CHEW-BOSE × The time will never be right for a family vacation. × It’s been years,…

Copyright ©2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required. TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. The story that the…

In the summer of 1978, a group of geologists traveled into Siberia and discovered a family that had not had outside contact with anyone in four decades:

"In some respects, Peskov makes clear, the taiga did offer some abundance: 'Beside the dwelling ran a clear, cold stream. Stands of larch, spruce, pine and birch yielded all that anyone could take.… Bilberries and raspberries were close to hand, firewood as well, and pine nuts fell right on the roof.'

"Yet the Lykovs lived permanently on the edge of famine. It was not until the late 1950s, when Dmitry reached manhood, that they first trapped animals for their meat and skins. Lacking guns and even bows, they could hunt only by digging traps or pursuing prey across the mountains until the animals collapsed from exhaustion. Dmitry built up astonishing endurance, and could hunt barefoot in winter, sometimes returning to the hut after several days, having slept in the open in 40 degrees of frost, a young elk across his shoulders. More often than not, though, there was no meat, and their diet gradually became more monotonous. Wild animals destroyed their crop of carrots, and Agafia recalled the late 1950s as 'the hungry years.'"

by ALEX CARNEVALE Wystan Hugh Auden arrived in New York City in January of 1939. His friends in New York shared the attitude of his friends in England: they were as unhappy to see him arrive as the…