Be a Good Sport By Soraya Roberts Feature Competitive sports can mean professional and financial success — if they don’t compromise your mental health first. ‘Cheer’ and ‘Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez’ show how athletics can hurt as much as they can heal. Friends: We Need Your Help to Fund More Stories
Remembering the Things That Remain By Amos Barshad Feature A Polish artist invites a journalist to dig into disturbing remnants from the Holocaust that Poland would rather keep buried.
Whatever Happened to ______ ? By Longreads Feature Envy over her success led her husband, also a writer, to become violent. She fights every day for her safety — and to avoid being relegated to obscurity like so many writers who are mothers.
Sit Back, Relax, and Try Not To Think About the Hole We’re Making In Your Skull By Michelle Weber Highlight You can understand how the dura mater connects to the arachnoid mater, but that doesn’t mean you understand the mind.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week By Longreads Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Wendy C. Ortiz, Mary South, Jeremiah Moss, Nora Caplan-Bricker, and Samanth Subramanian.
Vivian Gornick on ‘Political Activism as a Path Toward a Coherent Self’ By Krista Stevens Highlight “But writing itself, living a life defined by work and intellect rather than love or marriage, became her primary feminist commitment.”
The Nontrivial Pursuit of Quiz Glory By Ben Huberman Commentary Even in the age of the search engine, the pleasure of knowing the right answer endures.
Behind the Magic: The Story of Prince’s Super Bowl Halftime Show By Krista Stevens Highlight “No it’s not about me. It’s about the music, it’s about this moment.”
Please Don’t You Be My Neighbor By Krista Stevens Highlight “To watch those people vanish and be replaced by people who shine like glass, who cut through the sidewalks like knives but reflect nothing back, has been another scraping out. Am I still here? I don’t know anyone here anymore.”
Science Says Life is Better in Intentional Communities By Krista Stevens Highlight Intentional communities are a prophylactic against the plague of loneliness and a gateway to a meaningful life.
Can Japan Break Its Addiction to Disposable Packaging? By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight One of the most technologically advanced countries in the world pays a high ecological price for its many culinary conveniences.
At Mrs. Balbir’s By Jillian Dunham Feature Jillian Dunham traveled thousands of miles from home to get away from her grief. It found her anyway, in a stranger’s Bangkok apartment.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week By Longreads Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Michael Barajas, Evan Ratliff, Andrew Mckirdy, Raffi Khatchadourian, and Agnes Callard.
Whatever Happened to ______ ? By Longreads Feature Envy over her success led her husband, also a writer, to become violent. She fights every day for her safety — and to avoid being relegated to obscurity like so many writers who are mothers.
The God Phone By Leora Smith Feature What happens when ordinary people play God to strangers? Leora Smith explores the history of one of the oldest art installations at Burning Man and the conversations that unfold there.
The Price of Dominionist Theology By Eve Ettinger Feature After leaving fundamentalism, Eve Ettinger grapples with the loaded theological heritage of evangelical personal finance teachings.
If My Scars Could Talk By Tega Oghenechovwen Feature Tega Oghenechovwen contemplates the ways in which acute childhood trauma can infect and compromise relationships later in life.
The 25 Most Popular Longreads Exclusives of 2019 By Longreads Feature The original reporting, personal essays, columns, and collaborations that were our most-read stories of the year.
In Pocahontas County, Deep Divisions and a Gruesome Discovery By Longreads Feature In an excerpt from ‘The Third Rainbow Girl,’ Emma Copley Eisenberg interrogates various social conditions that might have contributed to a mysterious double murder in West Virginia in 1980.
N.K. Jemisin: ‘I am still going to write what I am going to write.’ By Krista Stevens Highlight Hells to the yes, says I.
10 Outstanding Short Stories to Read in 2020 By Longreads Feature Stories by Edwidge Danticat, Etgar Keret, Valeria Luiselli, and more.
William Gibson on How Science Fiction Portrays Reality By Krista Stevens Highlight “Every fiction about the future is like an ice-cream cone,” Gibson says, “melting as it moves into the future.”
Violence Girl By Longreads Feature How a young bilingual Latina became one of punk’s enduring icons and helped create a new musical universe.
Be a Good Sport By Soraya Roberts Feature Competitive sports can mean professional and financial success — if they don’t compromise your mental health first. ‘Cheer’ and ‘Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez’ show how athletics can hurt as much as they can heal.
Menace Too Society By Soraya Roberts Feature Cancel culture suggests we can change the world from the outside in, but the misogyny and racism are coming from inside the house.
Happily Never After By Soraya Roberts Feature By protecting ourselves and no one else, we destroy ourselves along with everyone else.
What the World’s Most Controversial Herbicide Is Doing to Rural Argentina By Longreads Feature After enormous lobbying efforts, Monsanto’s GMO soybeans, treated with Roundup, became the country’s largest export, as cancer rates and other health issues skyrocketed.
Don’t Let Old Wounds Die Out By Longreads Commentary Our last editors’ roundtable of the season, with guest Nick Chrastil.
Be a Good Sport By Soraya Roberts Feature Competitive sports can mean professional and financial success — if they don’t compromise your mental health first. ‘Cheer’ and ‘Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez’ show how athletics can hurt as much as they can heal.
Please Don’t You Be My Neighbor By Krista Stevens Highlight “To watch those people vanish and be replaced by people who shine like glass, who cut through the sidewalks like knives but reflect nothing back, has been another scraping out. Am I still here? I don’t know anyone here anymore.”
At Mrs. Balbir’s By Jillian Dunham Feature Jillian Dunham traveled thousands of miles from home to get away from her grief. It found her anyway, in a stranger’s Bangkok apartment.
Inking Against Invisibility By Talia Hibbert Feature In the face of chronic pain, invisible illness, and medical discrimination, Talia Hibbert turned to tatoos to reclaim ownership of her body.