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Editors’ Picks Features Topics Best of 2018
Longreads
Johnny Rotten, My Mom, and Me
By Kimberly Mack Feature

Kimberly Mack recalls the ways in which rock music bonded her with her African American mom, and how those fierce sounds helped them cope with the poverty, violence, and despair both outside and inside their Brooklyn home.
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On Asylums
By Lisa Chen Feature

A problematic cat offered more insight into the author’s ailing father than you’d think.
Notes on a Shipwreck
By Longreads Feature

On Lampedusa, history is never far from the islanders’ thoughts, and they are preoccupied by its contradictions. Is Lampedusa a stop on a long journey, or is it a graveyard? Does every fence need a hole in it?

The Caviar Con
By David Gauvey Herbert Feature

When caviar-crazed Eastern Europeans flocked to Warsaw, Missouri to poach eggs from a vulnerable species of fish, federal agents went undercover and spent two years to build case against them.

Longreads Best of 2018

A collection of our favorite stories this year
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Latest Picks

The Color of Money
By Ijeoma Oluo  / Topic
Johnny Rotten, My Mom, and Me
By Kimberly Mack  / Longreads
Who Killed Tulum?
By Reeves Wiedeman  / The Cut
The True Story Behind an Iconic Vietnam War Photo Was Nearly Erased — Until Now
By Michael Shaw  / The New York Times Magazine
My Restaurant Was the Greatest Show of Excess You’d Ever Seen, and It Almost Killed Me
By David McMillan  / www.bonappetit.com
The Devastating Allure of Medical Miracles
By David Dobbs  / Wired
After Years of Inaction, Delta Teacher Shortage Reaches ‘Crisis’ Levels
By Kelsey Davis , Aaliyah Wright  / Mississippi Today
How to Grant Your Child an Inner Life
By Jess Row  / The New Yorker
Beaten, Then Silenced
By Lisa Gartner  / Philadelphia Inquirer
Rare L.A. Mega-Storm Could Overwhelm Dam and Flood Dozens of Cities, Experts Say
By Louis Sahagun  / Los Angeles Times
View more

Latest Posts
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
By Longreads Weekly Top 5

This week, we’re sharing stories from Ijeoma Oluo, Patricia Lockwood, Michael Shaw, Mairead Small Staid, and Adriana Gallardo.
A Moral Center In a Decayed Ethical Universe
By Michelle Weber Highlight

“The best thing I did was simply respect him.”
‘The Most Versatile Criminal In History’
By Jonny Auping Feature

Journalist Evan Ratliff has uncovered the shocking reach of Paul Le Roux’s criminal enterprise — a global network of pawns, most of whom were unaware of the full extent of the empire.
Parenting in the New Age of Anxiety
By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight

Are we sacrificing our childrens’ inner lives by protecting them too much?
There’s a Fine Line Between “Discovering” and “Interloping”
By Michelle Weber Highlight

It’s only “discovery” if you assume the place — or the people — has no meaningful existence apart from your visit. Surprise: you’re not that important.

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Remembering Ken Nordine
By Tom Maxwell Feature

The ambitious radio personality created his own form of expression, called “word jazz,” to properly accomodate his musical voice and artistic ambitions.
Written On the Body: One Family’s History
By Krista Stevens Highlight

“We, as family, got so much from their trash. I never wanted to forget that I was the janitor’s kid before I was anything else.”
How Do We Read in a Digital World?
By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight

Digitization has changed the way readers experience literature — and examine themselves.
Health Care Sponcon: Where Big Pharma Meets Instagram Influencer
By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight

Health care and medical sponsored content from influencers is growing on Instagram. But is it ethical?
Maybe What We Need Is … More Politics?
By Aaron Timms Feature

Recent books by economists who hope to “save capitalism” dismiss popular ideas as “just politics.” But why assume the popular is the enemy of the good?
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Popular Posts
Atlantic City Is Really Going Down This Time
By Rebecca McCarthy Feature

There’s no doubt that Atlantic City is going under. The only question left is: Can an entire city donate its body to science?
The Caviar Con
By David Gauvey Herbert Feature

When caviar-crazed Eastern Europeans flocked to Warsaw, Missouri to poach eggs from a vulnerable species of fish, federal agents went undercover and spent two years to build case against them.
‘Leaving the Bay Area is the Best Thing You Can Do Right Now, If You Have a Dream’
By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight

In the Bay Area, there are two migrations: young people in tech moving in, ready to disrupt, and young people with other dreams — the artists, teachers, blacksmiths, therapists, mechanics, musicians — who leave because there’s no longer a place for them.
The Hunt for Planet Nine
By Shannon Stirone Feature

What will it take to find the biggest missing object in our solar system?
The New Scabs: Stars Who Cross the Picket Line
By Soraya Roberts Feature

“The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude,” wrote George Orwell in 1946, and it still stands.
‘The Most Versatile Criminal In History’
By Jonny Auping Feature

Journalist Evan Ratliff has uncovered the shocking reach of Paul Le Roux’s criminal enterprise — a global network of pawns, most of whom were unaware of the full extent of the empire.

Books
‘The Most Versatile Criminal In History’
By Jonny Auping Feature

Journalist Evan Ratliff has uncovered the shocking reach of Paul Le Roux’s criminal enterprise — a global network of pawns, most of whom were unaware of the full extent of the empire.
Notes on a Shipwreck
By Longreads Feature

On Lampedusa, history is never far from the islanders’ thoughts, and they are preoccupied by its contradictions. Is Lampedusa a stop on a long journey, or is it a graveyard? Does every fence need a hole in it?

Maybe What We Need Is … More Politics?
By Aaron Timms Feature

Recent books by economists who hope to “save capitalism” dismiss popular ideas as “just politics.” But why assume the popular is the enemy of the good?
Three Decades of Cross-Cultural Utopianism in British Music Writing
By Longreads Feature

The history of England’s fertile music press reveals as much about the opinionated English youth who created it as it does the music they covered in the second half of the 20th century.
‘What Would Social Media Be Like As the World Is Ending?’
By Jacob Silverman Feature

In Mark Doten’s “Trump Sky Alpha,” a journalist who has survived Trump’s nuclear apocalypse gets an assignment from what’s left of the New York Times Magazine: find out what people were tweeting as the bombs fell.
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Current Events
Notes on a Shipwreck
By Longreads Feature

On Lampedusa, history is never far from the islanders’ thoughts, and they are preoccupied by its contradictions. Is Lampedusa a stop on a long journey, or is it a graveyard? Does every fence need a hole in it?

Remembering Ken Nordine
By Tom Maxwell Feature

The ambitious radio personality created his own form of expression, called “word jazz,” to properly accomodate his musical voice and artistic ambitions.
Maybe What We Need Is … More Politics?
By Aaron Timms Feature

Recent books by economists who hope to “save capitalism” dismiss popular ideas as “just politics.” But why assume the popular is the enemy of the good?
‘It’s a Perfect Profession for a Con Artist’
By Michelle Weber Highlight

Personal assistant? Start-up founder? Professional long-lost sister? No, Southern Baptist pastor.
Preparing for a Post-Roe America
By Laura Barcella Feature

Activist and author Robin Marty says the biggest threat facing women in a post-Roe America would be arrest, not death.
View all

Essays & Criticism
Johnny Rotten, My Mom, and Me
By Kimberly Mack Feature

Kimberly Mack recalls the ways in which rock music bonded her with her African American mom, and how those fierce sounds helped them cope with the poverty, violence, and despair both outside and inside their Brooklyn home.
There’s a Fine Line Between “Discovering” and “Interloping”
By Michelle Weber Highlight

It’s only “discovery” if you assume the place — or the people — has no meaningful existence apart from your visit. Surprise: you’re not that important.
Maybe What We Need Is … More Politics?
By Aaron Timms Feature

Recent books by economists who hope to “save capitalism” dismiss popular ideas as “just politics.” But why assume the popular is the enemy of the good?
Class Dismissed
By Alison Stine Feature

When she attends an elite private college on scholarship, Alison Stine discovers that education isn’t quite the equalizer she expected it to be.
‘I Saw My Countrymen Marched Out of Tacoma’
By Joy Lanzendorfer Feature

It started in Eureka, then it spread. Up and down the Pacific Coast, white mobs turned on Chinese-Americans.
View all
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