Shelved: The Lady of Rage’s Eargasm By Tom Maxwell Feature Rapper Robin Allen’s hit song bypassed the hip-hop boys club that held her debut solo album back. Friends: We Need Your Help to Fund More Stories
Seasonal Associate By Longreads Feature No longer able to live on her freelance writing income, German novelist Heike Geissler takes a holiday seasonal job at an Amazon fulfillment center.
Queens of Infamy: Zenobia By Anne Thériault Feature In third-century Syria, a widowed monarch dared to be wildly ambitious — and almost brought the Roman Empire to its knees.
The Longreads 2018 Holiday Gift Book Guide By Dana Snitzky Commentary We’ve made a catalog of books we featured in 2018 that we think would make great gifts.
Longreads Best of 2018: Science and Technology By Longreads Reading List We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in science and tech.
Thank You for Not Being Afraid, Pat Maginnis By Michelle Weber Highlight Compromise and political reform only take you so far; sometimes you need to shake the whole system.
Piecing Together the Story of an Oregon Serial Killer By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Finally telling the story of the women who were raped and murdered along Oregon’s Highway 20.
‘It Happened to My Father the Way It Happened’: The Truth About Green Book By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight At Vanity Fair, film critic K. Austin Collins explores the shaky “true story” of Green Book, the film by Peter Farrelly starring Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali.
This Month in Books: Two Sides of the Same Gaslight By Dana Snitzky Commentary This month’s books newsletter is a bundle of contradictions, a cornucopia of counterintuitions.
Longreads Best of 2018: Crime Reporting By Longreads Commentary We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in crime reporting.
The Rich Man and the Sea By Michelle Weber Highlight Laurie Penny spends four days on a boat confronting the archetypal story of “man vs. blockchain.”
At the Very Least We Know the End of the World Will Have a Bright Side By Adam Boffa Feature Solarpunk, a new genre of science fiction, demands radical optimism of its writers and readers. It takes the apocalypse as given, but doesn’t assume the worst of people living through it.
Longreads Best of 2018: Essays By Longreads Reading List We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in essays.
Sea Lion Herschel: Steelhead Salmon Scapegoat By Krista Stevens Highlight They tried every deterrent, including forced relocation, but Herschel the sea lion and his posse returned year after year to enjoy the free steelhead salmon buffet in Puget Sound.
The Second Half of Watergate Was Bigger, Worse, and Forgotten By the Public By Longreads Feature Watergate revealed that multinational corporations, including some of the most prestigious American brands, had been making bribes to politicians not only at home but in foreign countries.
The Neanderthal By Jen Gilman Porat Feature Jen Gilman Porat seeks a genetic excuse for her husband’s barbaric table manners.
Who Cares? : On Nags, Martyrs, the Women Who Give Up, and the Men Who Don’t Get It By Longreads Feature Some women successfully free themselves from emotional labor, but I don’t want to give up the work of caring. I just want others to care as well.
The Queer Generation Gap By Soraya Roberts Feature How the sexual fluidity of the next generation reflects the limitations of the one that came before it.
The City I Love Is Destroying Itself By Nicole Antebi Feature Nicole Antebi interviews historian David Dorado Romo about the fight to preserve the oldest barrio in El Paso from the City itself.
What Has Everyone Got Against Dave Matthews? By Krista Stevens Commentary What’s not to like about Dave Matthews, asks Allison Williams.
Seasonal Associate By Longreads Feature No longer able to live on her freelance writing income, German novelist Heike Geissler takes a holiday seasonal job at an Amazon fulfillment center.
This Month in Books: Two Sides of the Same Gaslight By Dana Snitzky Commentary This month’s books newsletter is a bundle of contradictions, a cornucopia of counterintuitions.
At the Very Least We Know the End of the World Will Have a Bright Side By Adam Boffa Feature Solarpunk, a new genre of science fiction, demands radical optimism of its writers and readers. It takes the apocalypse as given, but doesn’t assume the worst of people living through it.
Guy Gunaratne on the ‘Push-Pull of Ancestry and Meaning’ in London By Hope Reese Feature Guy Gunaratne’s Man Booker-longlisted “In Our Mad and Furious City” recognizes multiple, overlapping versions of London and its inhabitants, examining the ways violence can bubble up through the city’s fissures.
Did the Modern Novel Kill Charles Bovary? By Ankita Chakraborty Feature Jean Améry, the Austrian essayist and Primo Levi’s former barrack-mate at Auschwitz, wrote one last novel before he died. Its six angry chapters are written as if by Charles Bovary, accusing Flaubert of ruining his life.
Remembering Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks By Tom Maxwell Feature The Buzzcocks’ enduring influence might have surprised punk frontman Pete Shelley, but not his fans.
Shoot First, Ask Questions Later (Or Don’t) By Michelle Weber Highlight Officer Stephen Mader got fired for deciding not to shoot someone, and if that doesn’t say a lot about the problems with police culture in the U.S., I don’t know what to tell you.
No Justice For Old Men By Michelle Weber Highlight In 2018, we’re inured to stories of a powerful men taking advantage of girls and getting away with it, but Jeffrey Epstein’s story still manages to horrify.
The Case for Letting Malibu Burn By Longreads Feature Many of California’s native ecosystems evolved to burn. Modern fire suppression creates fuels that lead to catastrophic fires. So why do people insist on rebuilding in the firebelt?
Sign On the Dotted Line to Ensure Your Own Destruction By Michelle Weber Highlight New York’s court system aids and abets predatory lenders who prey on small business owners.
At the Very Least We Know the End of the World Will Have a Bright Side By Adam Boffa Feature Solarpunk, a new genre of science fiction, demands radical optimism of its writers and readers. It takes the apocalypse as given, but doesn’t assume the worst of people living through it.
Longreads Best of 2018: Essays By Longreads Reading List We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in essays.
Duet for a Small Porpoise’s Extinction By Kimi Eisele Feature Kimi Eisele contemplates coherence, the near extinction of the vaquita, and the expensive bycatch of being human.
The Neanderthal By Jen Gilman Porat Feature Jen Gilman Porat seeks a genetic excuse for her husband’s barbaric table manners.
