Longreads

When I was 26, my then roommate was a great scavenger of furniture. One day, she came home with a daybed frame: a twin-size wooden box with only three legs, which is likely why someone had left it on…

Both Sides of the Table A few months ago, on Sunday, January 27, an entrepreneur named Jody Sherman had plans to see a movie with a friend. But that afternoon, the friend received a call from Jody's…

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.'"

This is not real. Photo: JD Hancock/Flickr I’m walking through the dark woods with three strangers. They’re all carrying knives. A sliver of white moon hangs between the black, bare…

By Virginia Hughes | November 22, 2012 | 30 Comments Anna Sumner’s craving for sleep began when she was an 18-year-old high school senior. She thought nothing of it. When it followed her to…

A candlelight vigil in Minneapolis for the victims of gay bullying. © Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Minneapolis Star Tribune/ZUMApress.com Every morning, Brittany Geldert stepped off the bus and…

by Anne Raeff February 2012 Photograph via Flickr by mel!nka “Don’t forget to feed the chickens,” her parents told her when they left for the jungle to take care of the yellow…

People flooded Foxconn Technology with résumés at a 2010 job fair in Henan Province, China. When Barack Obama joined Silicon Valley’s top luminaries for dinner in California…

Matthew Carpenter, age 10, has completed 642 inverse trigonometry problems at KhanAcademy.org.Photo: Joe Pugliese This, says Matthew Carpenter, is my favorite exercise. I peer…