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The Audience Award has been a welcome addition to our curated Top 5 mix: It’s the most-read editor’s pick of any given week, a story that our readers couldn’t resist. Here are the 10 most popular reads we recommended this year, from a wild story at Texas Monthly about a warthog to a piece in Slate about the true crime industry. Give these a read if you missed them the first time, or revisit and share your favorites!
—Carolyn, Cheri, Krista, Peter & Seyward
1. His Best Friend Was a 250-Pound Warthog. One Day, It Decided to Kill Him.
Peter Holley | Texas Monthly | February 7, 2024 | 3,620 words
Yes, the headline is undeniable. Yes, the story delivers on its promise. Yes, Peter Holley’s story about Austin Riley’s harrowing ordeal will stay with you. A chilling reminder that animals gonna animal, no matter how tight the bond. —PR
2. Crying Myself to Sleep on the Biggest Cruise Ship Ever
Gary Shteyngart | The Atlantic | April 4, 2024 | 9,099 words
As Gary Shteyngart is quick to remind you, he’s far from the first writer to chronicle a cruise ship voyage. He may, however, be the first to do so while wearing a daddy’s little meatball T-shirt. And for more than 9,000 words, he adds a worthy entry to the participatory subgenre. It helps that he punches up (and in) more than down, though the result is the same: making you savor terra firma. —PR
3. The Birth of My Daughter, the Death of My Marriage
Leslie Jamison | The New Yorker | January 15, 2024 | 7,126 words
In this excerpt of her forthcoming book, Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story, Leslie Jamison recounts the early months of her daughter’s life. During that period, Jamison juggled a book tour, a teaching career, and the demands of a newborn—amid the growing realization that she wanted to leave her marriage. —KS
4. A Teen’s Fatal Plunge Into the London Underworld
Patrick Radden Keefe | The New Yorker | February 5, 2024 | 14,311 words
A security camera caught 19-year-old Zac Brettler jumping to his death from a fifth-floor apartment in London. But did he commit suicide? Brettler’s parents’ attempts to answer that question led to shocking revelations, including that their son was posing as the heir of a Russian oligarch, and that he had fallen in with a known gangster, Dave Sharma. —SD
5. Andrew Huberman’s Mechanisms of Control
Kerry Howley | New York | March 25, 2024 | 8,179 words
Andrew Huberman is one of the most successful podcasters in the world. The Stanford neuroscientist claims that he’s helping people live better lives by giving them tools to improve their health. But should audiences trust him? Critics say he’s shilling pseudoscience, and women he’s dated say that he’s a misogynistic master of deception. They have the texts, voice memos, and emails to prove it. —SD
6. The Texan Doctor and the Disappeared Saudi Princesses
Heidi Blake | The New Yorker | October 10, 2024 | 5,041 words
This is a disturbing insight into the lives of four Saudi princesses imprisoned in a palace compound by their father, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. Abdullah, despite proclaiming himself a champion of women’s rights, mercilessly dominated his daughters. Heidi Blake discovers some of his means of control (sedation and alcohol) from Dwight Burdick, a private physician to the Saudi royal family, who bravely speaks out after learning of the deaths of two of the princesses—while they still lived in isolation. —CW
7. The Divorce Tapes
Beth Raymer | New York | September 10, 2024 | 6,334 words
When she was young, Beth Raymer knew that her father had tapped the family’s phone lines to spy on his wife; he planned to use the recordings against her when he filed for divorce. As an adult, Raymer discover the terrible secrets the recordings contained. This is a stunning essay about family, abuse, betrayal, and the painful limits of truth. —SD
8. What My Adult Autism Diagnosis Finally Explained
Mary H.K. Choi | The Cut | July 3, 2024 | 5,906 words
Mary H.K. Choi is searingly honest in her portrayal of coming to terms with an autism diagnosis at the age of 43—not holding back in exposing what she finds uncomfortable. A moving account of finally feeling allowed to make things easier on yourself. —CW
9. What Really Happened to Baby Christina?
Matthew Bremner | Esquire | February 15, 2024 | 8,100 words
Twenty-six years ago, Barton McNeil called 911 to report that his 3-year-old daughter had died in the night. It was the worst thing that could ever happen to any parent. Then a new nightmare began. Matthew Bremner tells the harrowing story through a personal lens. —SD
10. Her Dad Was the BTK Killer. Their Daughter Was Gabby Petito. Why Would They Ever Agree to This?
Luke Winkie | Slate | August 14, 2024 | 4,513 words
The true crime industry—what a phrase—is both vast and lucrative, spanning from docuseries to podcasts to books to conventions like CrimeCon. But those conventions don’t simply connect fans with investigators and journalists; they’ve become a tour itinerary of sorts for crime victims’ family members, many of whom bare their souls for years on end. For Slate, Luke Winkie visits CrimeCon to ask one simple question: Why? —PR
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