Vinyl in the Veins
Behind the nostalgia lies an uncomfortable truth: Every record is made of oil.
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Longreads features
My Almond Archive
In southeastern Italy, almond groves hold centuries of local history. A granddaughter returns to gather the bitter and the sweet.
Curiosity as Compassion: A Conversation with Susan Orlean
Why it’s important to cultivate resilience and curiosity as a writer.
The Cousin Returns
On coming home to the Philippines.
‘It’s More Like a Playlist’: Lavinia Spalding on Editing the Best Women’s Travel Writing
The editor of The Best Women’s Travel Writing series on curation, grief and levity, and the stories she hopes to read more of in the future.
Living in an Alive World
Soft eyes, deep listening, and other ways to extend human perception beyond our limits.
The Grate Cheese Robbery
How organized crime fell in love with cheese.
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Weekly Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Recommending stories from Hua Hsu, Amanda Petrusich, Michelle Cyca, Emily Nemens, and Helen Lewis.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Exceptional stories from Mark Singer, Jennifer Kabat, Ann Lee, Thomas Lake, and Natalia Galicza
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring stories from Christopher Hooks, Peter Hessler, Carrie Sun, Jack Burke, and Caity Weaver.
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Learn to Love Your Search Results Again.
Introducing the Longreads Story Recommender.
The Longreads questionnaire
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Aymann Ismail
The Slate writer and Becoming Baba author reflects on Newark and mosques as home, making sense of Egypt on long flights, and becoming a father.
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Elisa Gabbert
The author of Any Person Is the Only Self and recent Guggenheim fellow talks about the worst time of day, the value of wasting an hour, and chilaquiles.
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Cory Doctorow
The author of Enshittification and the new The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI on hammock life, the joy of pulp, and writing through it.
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Excerpts from The Atavist Magazine, our sister publication
The Fugitive Childhood of a Cocaine Smuggler’s Daughters
“When their parents ripped two young sisters from their privileged lives, gave them fake names, and took them on the lam, they thought it was because their father was in trouble with the IRS. It would be years before they learned the truth about his life of crime.”
‘Nothing Together’
My brother’s murder and its aftermath.
Open Season
Colorado’s San Luis Valley was a wildlife poacher’s paradise.
Then an undercover federal agent arrived.
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Longreads reading lists
Constructions, Concoctions, Conjurations: A Reading List on the Curious World of Conlangs
Making stuff up is harder, stranger, and occasionally more dangerous than it looks. Seven stories that explore the world of constructed languages.
Daylight Savings Time: A (Beach) Reading List for the Lighthearted
It’s summer, people. Let’s enjoy a little bit of levity.
Brave New World: A Reading List About the Dark Future
Five stories that make Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel feel like nonfiction.
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