The allure and shame of watching America’s last public hanging.
2017
Posted inEditor's Pick
Deliverance From 27,000 Feet
In May 2016, four Bengali mountaineers attempted to achieve a lifelong dream: to summit Mount Everest. After an egregiously late start to their summit attempt, they were abandoned by their guides and left to die on the mountain. Only one survived. John Branch reports on the ill-fated expedition and how a team of sherpas recovered […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Secret History of the Russian Consulate in San Francisco
Thanks to ten years of robust and brazen espionage, the US Government closed the Russian Consulate in San Francisco in August, 2017. That’s the short version. The detailed version is far more interesting and terrifying.
Posted inArts & Culture, Quotes
Mimi Loves Phil: Life After Death by Overdose
“How do I tell my kids that their dad just died? What are the words?”
Posted inBlog Post, Nonfiction, Unapologetic Women
An Elegy for Bette Howland, a Writer Who Was Nearly Forgotten
On the passing of a MacArthur Genius forgotten for decades, re-discovered by ‘A Public Space’ editor Brigid Hughes.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Quotes
Where It’s Always Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
Marissa Weiss explores life in Alaska: The cold, the dark, the ice, the 3,000 miles between her and her parents in Maryland.
Posted inArts & Culture
Longreads Best of 2017: Arts & Culture Writing
We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in arts and culture writing.
Posted inArts & Culture
The Downwardly Mobile Generation
How job insecurity, student debt, health care, zoning and the housing market have compounded over decades to create a life few millennials can afford.
Posted inQuotes, Unapologetic Women
‘Cat Person’ and the Young Person
Many of us can viscerally remember what it was like to be young and overwhelmed by the power of our youth.
Posted inNonfiction, Story
No Más Fantasía
What happens when you’re sentenced to life in prison as a teenager, then released 19 years later and sent to a place that’s supposed to feel like home?