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Longreads features

Living in an Alive World

Soft eyes, deep listening, and other ways to extend human perception beyond our limits.

Failure To Lawn

On what a dying patch of turfgrass can teach us about water scarcity, ecological repair, and the lies we tell ourselves about success.

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Recent editors’ picks

Happy Fucking Birthday

Christopher Hooks | Harper’s Magazine | June 17, 2026 | 9,666 words

“An exhausted America turns two hundred and fifty.”

The Brexit Catch

Jack Burke | Dispatch | June 18, 2026 | 3,317 words

“Britain’s fishermen became the folk heroes of Brexit. In Brixham, they were promised a brighter future. Did it ever arrive?”

Weed Habit

Jennifer Kabat | New York Review of Architecture | April 30, 2026 | 2,167 words

“What would these weeds say of the city if they could talk?”

What Remains

Jennifer Sinor | The American Scholar | June 12, 2026 | 4,536 words

“We may know that nothing lasts forever, but this knowledge doesn’t alleviate the loneliness of grief.”

How to Hack a Superyacht

Katherine Dunn | The Walrus | June 13, 2026 | 2,771 words

“GPS is critical to everything from shipping to warfare. Tricking it is ridiculously easy.”

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Weekly Top 5

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

Showcasing stories from Sloane Crosley; Zadie Smith; Mark Johnson and Saumya Khandelwal; Todd Kliman; and Sheila Liming.

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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 Fugitive Childhood of a Cocaine Smuggler’s Daughters

“When their parents ripped two young sisters from their privileged lives, gave them fake names, and took them on the lam, they thought it was because their father was in trouble with the IRS. It would be years before they learned the truth about his life of crime.”

Open Season

Colorado’s San Luis Valley was a wildlife poacher’s paradise. Then an undercover federal agent arrived.

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Longreads reading lists

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