Our Picks
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Our favorite stories of the week, as chosen by the Longreads editors.
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Source: Longreads
Published: Sept. 23, 2016
How Hampton Creek Sold Silicon Valley on a Fake-Mayo Miracle
A vegan food company used false claims and "deployed a national network of contractors to secretly buy back" its products from grocery stores to raise millions from investors.
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Source: Bloomberg Businessweek
Published: Sept. 21, 2016
Length: 17 minutes (4479 words)
A Decade Lived in the Dark
A woman's memoir about dealing with extreme light sensitivity captivated readers and critics, but medical professionals are questioning the veracity of her story.
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Source: The New Yorker
Published: Sept. 19, 2016
Length: 30 minutes (7746 words)
In Bed With the Enemy: The Untold Story of Japanese War Brides
They either tried, or were pressured, to give up their Japanese identities to become more fully American. A first step was often adopting the American nicknames given them when their Japanese names were deemed too hard to pronounce or remember. Chikako became Peggy; Kiyoko became Barbara. Not too much thought went into those choices, names sometimes imposed in an instant by a U.S. officer organizing his pool of typists. My mother, Hiroko Furukawa, became Susie.
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Source: Washington Post
Published: Sept. 22, 2016
Length: 19 minutes (4842 words)
The Month That Killed the Sixties
An oral history of how everything went to hell in December 1969. Fred Hampton was killed by the police, the hippie spirit died at Altamont, and the Weathermen went underground.
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Source: Random House
Published: Sept. 22, 2016
Length: 32 minutes (8161 words)
On Food, Family, and Love: A Recipe For Memory
Atlanta chef and culinary teacher Tim Patridge says there is a difference between reunion and funeral chicken. Reunion chicken, he explains, is fried fast and hot, in a hurry to get to the park and the party. It has a crust that is consequently crisper than the more tender crust of funeral chicken. Funeral chicken is fried slowly. Reluctant for the day to progress, the cook takes her time, turning the burner lower, braising as well as frying. As she stands at the stove, turning the pieces, raising and lowering the heat, she is lost in the act of remembering the person who has gone before. That memory, Tim suggests, may also flavor funeral chicken.
Author:
Source: Oxford American
Published: Sept. 22, 2016
Length: 7 minutes (1993 words)
Big Lonely Doug
How a single ancient tree in western Canada became a nationwide celebrity and media sensation, as well as the powerful image environmental groups needed to try to slow the ongoing destruction of the country's old-growth forests.
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Source: The Walrus
Published: Sept. 21, 2016
Length: 11 minutes (2985 words)
Ghost Stories
Over half a century after WWII, a generation of Germans still struggles to come to terms with their ancestors' atrocities. They are kriegskinder, the children of war. Guilt and spirits haunt them.
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Source: The New Yorker
Published: Sept. 12, 2016
Length: 34 minutes (8647 words)
Why She's Suing Fox News
Conservative commentator Andrea Tantaros, a former co-host of "The Five" and "Outnumbered" on Fox News, speaks out about the experiences that prompted her sexual harassment suit against the organization and its former CEO, Roger Ailes.
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Source: Esquire
Published: Sept. 21, 2016
Length: 16 minutes (4228 words)
Are You Ready to Meet Your Fixer Uppers?
Home renovation shows package the American dream from anxiety-riddled nightmare to easily-digestible entertainment. In this profile of Chip and Joanna Gaines, the stars of HGTV’s "Fixer Upper," Taffy Brodesser-Akner goes long on how the couple works together and how they’ve managed to rebrand Waco, Texas as a place not of tragedy, but of shiplap and dreams.
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Source: Texas Monthly
Published: Sept. 21, 2016
Length: 36 minutes (9143 words)