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Longreads features

Eating Alone

Soggy fries, ghost kitchens, and a $19 bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich: what we’ve actually gained on the path to convenience.

Going Up and Going In

A solo climber considers the outermost reaches of risk, and the unlikely ways in which they redefine us.

Ladies of the ’80s

How Madonna, Grace Jones, Joan Jett, Whitney Houston, and their contemporaries broke the stodgy musical mold of the ’60s and ’70s to inspire generations of women to pick up an instrument and learn to play music.

Black and Blue in Cleveland

Both of Wilbert L. Cooper’s parents were cops. In this excerpt from his memoir, Cooper recounts how his mother got into the force—and what the department did to try to keep her out.

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Recent editors’ picks

Hockey Dads and Hockey Sons

Nick Paumgarten | The New Yorker | September 28, 2026 | 6,147 words

“Parenting is a practice. You learn from your mistakes and then repeat them anyway.”

A Record of Breath

Marci Wilding | Oxford American| August 11, 2026 | 2,687 words

“Archiving a life at the edge of disposal.”

The Babies Left Behind in America

Caitlin Dickerson | The Atlantic | September 28, 2026 | 6,700 words

“The United States is deporting parents without their children, creating a whole new family-separation crisis.”

You Should’ve Said Something

Derek Askey | The Sun | July 31, 2026 | 5,404 words

“I had to do everything the jurors did—sit in every court session, examine each piece of evidence, look out from the jury box every day at a man accused of…

Dusklands

J. M. Coetzee and F. M. Siccardi | Equator | September 9, 2026 | 3,378 words

“Growing up in the shadow of genocide.”

Oh, How Lucky We Are

Beryl Gilothwest | The Bitter Southerner | September 21, 2026 | 5,230 words

“Sandy West believed that embracing what we cannot understand is the pathway to enlightenment, and that time on her beloved Ossabaw was the best way to learn that lesson.”

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Weekly Top 5

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

Showcasing stories from J.B. MacKinnon, Daniel Kolitz, Daniel Shailer, Justin Neuman, and Hanif Abdurraqib.

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

Recommending stories by Garrett M. Graff, Hannah McAlilly, Lizzy Goodman, Simon Hattenstone, and Duncan Fyfe.

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Learn to Love Your Search Results Again.

Introducing the Longreads Story Recommender.

The Longreads questionnaire

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Excerpts from The Atavist Magazine, our sister publication

The Thief Who Wanted to Save the World

“An ex-cop pulled off the largest armed robbery in Austria’s history, with his friend’s mistress as his accomplice. But he wasn’t trying to get rich. He wanted to be a real-life Robin Hood.”

Secrets of the Atomic City

“For decades, workers at a nuclear facility in Kentucky were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. Management assured them nothing was wrong. Then four friends risked everything to reveal the truth.”

God’s Children

The Kerrs were devoted to one another and to their faith. But when one of their own rejected modern medicine, they faced a dire question: What if her children ever needed a doctor to save their lives?

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Longreads reading lists

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