“Most drugs are banned in the world of elite sports, but not here. In this competition—backed by Peter Thiel, Donald Trump Jr., and Saudi royalty—the athletes are guinea pigs. And if those backers have their way, you’re next.”
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Creating Baby Geniuses to Thwart the AI Threat? (Yes, Really.)
“The new wave of Silicon Valley–backed gene-editing startups is straight out of ‘Brave New World.'”
Both Sides of The Mirror
Introducing The Longreads Questionnaire, featuring Vauhini Vara.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Simon van Zuylen-Wood, Elizabeth Weil, Jeannette Cooperman, Ryan Katz, and Madeleine Watts.
Longreads Best of 2022: All of Our No. 1 Story Picks
All the stories we’ve selected as number one in our weekly Top 5 newsletter.
Can This Tech Company’s Digital Border Wall Secure it More Government Defense Contracts?
Looking inside the new tech company who is building a cost-effective digital wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
To Live and Die in Utopian New Zealand
How the super rich like Peter Thiel are buying land in New Zealand to survive the apocalypse.
Peter Thiel Makes Sure His Kids Are All Right
Why the libertarian billionaire keeps tabs on the magazine he founded at Stanford 30 years ago.
How Peter Thiel and the Stanford Review Built a Silicon Valley Empire
Some people never leave college behind; the philosophies you develop as an undergrad can stay with you a lifetime. For Peter Thiel, that means checking on periodically on his 30-year-old love child, The Stanford Review, to make sure the magazine he founded still has an independent streak of disrupting the status quo of campus ideologies.
Why Silicon Valley Billionaires Are Prepping for the Apocalypse in New Zealand
When civilization collapses, would you rather die or end up on a New Zealand sheep farm with cutthroat capitalist Peter Thiel, enjoying a transfusion of a young person’s blood?


