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Editors’ Picks Features Topics Best Of 2020
Longreads
Binders Full of Men
By Jennifer Berney Feature

In an excerpt from her new book on fertility, feminism, and queer family-building, Jennifer Berney explores the possibilities of sperm banks.

Friends: We Need Your Help
to Fund More Stories

Longreads Best of 2020

A collection of our favorite stories from the past year
Read Our Favorites
An Atlas of the Cosmos
By Shannon Stirone Feature

We’ve mapped Mars, the Moon, the solar system, even our own galaxy. Which means there is only one thing left to understand in this symbolic way and that is the entirety of the cosmos.

The Geography Closest In
By Longreads Feature

In her new book, Miranda Ward explores the unique place of almost-motherhood — an uncertain landscape characterized by waiting, wanting, hoping, and not-knowing.

Repetitive Stress
By Devin Kelly Feature

On injury, compensation, and living with pain.

Latest Picks

‘Our fates are going to be the same.’
By Lauren Harris  / Columbia Journalism Review
Remote Working: What the UK’s Last Lighthouse Keepers Can Teach Us About Isolation
By Serena Coady  / The Independent
Inside Xinjiang’s Prison State
By Matt Huynh , Ben Mauk  / The New Yorker
Please Just Let Women Be Villains
By Elyse Martin  / Electric Literature
Britney Spears Was Never in Control
By Tavi Gevinson  / New York Magazine
“Dr. Lecter, My Name Is Clarice Starling”
By Tananarive Due  / Vanity Fair
Five Fishermen, a Stormy Night and £53m of Cocaine: Were the Freshwater Five Wrongly Convicted?
By Anna Moore  / The Guardian
Netflix and Anna Delvey: The Race to Secure the Story of New York’s ‘Fake Heiress’
By Vicky Baker  / BBC
Death Takes the Lagoon
By Ariel Saramandi  / Granta
“Mark Changed the Rules”
By Craig Silverman , Ryan Mac  / BuzzFeed News
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Latest Posts

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

This week, we’re sharing stories from Ben Mauk and Matt Huynh, Katie Engelhart, Devon O’Neil, Ariel Saramandi, and Tananarive Due.

“Can I Get You a Nice Chianti?”
By Carolyn Wells Highlight

Jodie Foster and Sir Anthony Hopkins talk about “The Silence of the Lambs” for the movie’s 30th anniversary.

When Death Came to Mauritius
By Krista Stevens Highlight

“Black waves bring animals to the town’s shore. Sticky corpses float on the oil.”

Graded by an Algorithm
By Carolyn Wells Highlight

“Algorithms…don’t go on mutant rampages, they only sometimes reveal and amplify the cruddy human biases that underpin them.”

“People are dying waiting”
By Krista Stevens Highlight

“Miguel Jr. and Jeannette are troubled that Miguel’s doctors didn’t present ECMO as an option, and then resisted the idea when the family suggested it.”

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“Addiction is a thief of your goodbyes”
By Krista Stevens Highlight

“I got angry, my mother cried, the addicts got high. That became a holiday theme for years to come.”

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

This week, we’re sharing stories from David Armstrong and Marshall Allen, Jesselyn Cook, Jason Sheehan, Tom Lamont, and Heather Stokes.

“The Internet Is Inside Us”: Patricia Lockwood on the Portal, Twitter, and Her New Novel
By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight

In an interview at GQ, Patricia Lockwood talks about the perils of being extremely online.

Taking Your Butt to a Higher Level
By Carolyn Wells Highlight

“Working in concert with the perfect breasts, the perfect bottom turns the body into the shape of an S. ‘It’s the classic hourglass figure,’ said Melissa. ‘That’s what you go after.'”

Dear Mom & Dad: We Need to Talk about QAnon
By Seyward Darby Highlight

Children Of QAnon believers are desperately trying to deradicalize their parents.

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Popular Posts

Repetitive Stress
By Devin Kelly Feature

On injury, compensation, and living with pain.

The Death of an Heir: Adolph Coors III and the Murder That Rocked an American Brewing Dynasty
By Longreads Feature

More than fifty years ago, one man tried to hold the Coors brewery CEO for ransom. Things went very badly.

Why Do So Many People Pretend to Be Native American?
By Longreads Feature

On Iron Eyes Cody and “the tribe of the Wannabe.”

Ten Outstanding Short Stories to Read in 2021
By Longreads Feature

Pravesh Bhardwaj read and and shared 304 short stories on the #longreads Twitter hashtag in 2020. Here are his favorites.

The God Phone
By Leora Smith Feature

What happens when ordinary people play God to strangers? Leora Smith explores the history of one of the oldest art installations at Burning Man and the conversations that unfold there.

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

This week, we’re sharing stories from David Armstrong and Marshall Allen, Jesselyn Cook, Jason Sheehan, Tom Lamont, and Heather Stokes.

Books

The Powerful Decide
By Longreads Feature

What makes good or bad design happen anywhere depends on who has the most power.

‘The Sea and Sky Decide What They Will Allow’
By Krista Stevens Highlight

“I’m working on a book about Arctic explorers, and that means swimming in a sea of sorrow.”

The Grieving Landscape
By Longreads Feature

Upon discovering that her mother had been a member of the group Women Strike For Peace (WSP), Heidi Hutner becomes obsessed with feminist nuclear history.

This Week in Books: Farewell Longreads! I’m Taking This Rodeo to Substack.
By Dana Snitzky Commentary

To read my “This Week in Books” newsletter in the future, follow me on substack.

Palliative Brownies
By Krista Stevens Highlight

“I grew up in the grip of the epidemic, maturing as people I adored as surrogate aunties and uncles fell ill and vanished from our lives.”

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Current Events

“People are dying waiting”
By Krista Stevens Highlight

“Miguel Jr. and Jeannette are troubled that Miguel’s doctors didn’t present ECMO as an option, and then resisted the idea when the family suggested it.”

The Silencing of #MeToo Reporting in Germany
By Seyward Darby Highlight

How an HIV specialist in Germany is using media law to erase reporting of sexual abuse allegations against him.

What Happened to Cruise Ship Workers Once the Passengers Were Gone?
By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight

At the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, cruise companies “went to great lengths to repatriate vacationers.” But for crew members, it was a different story.

Neighborhood Watch: The Strange Aftermath of a ‘Karen’ Encounter
By Seyward Darby Highlight

In a progressive New Jersey community, racial solidarity is complicated.

Longreads Best of 2020: Writing on COVID-19
By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Feature

Our top story picks in COVID-19 reporting this year.

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Essays & Criticism

When Death Came to Mauritius
By Krista Stevens Highlight

“Black waves bring animals to the town’s shore. Sticky corpses float on the oil.”

“A Series of Small Collapses Caused by Continual Neglect”
By Krista Stevens Highlight

“A series of small collapses is how they come to be radicalized.”

Binders Full of Men
By Jennifer Berney Feature

In an excerpt from her new book on fertility, feminism, and queer family-building, Jennifer Berney explores the possibilities of sperm banks.

Repetitive Stress
By Devin Kelly Feature

On injury, compensation, and living with pain.

‘Plant-Based Eating Is Probably One of the Blackest Things I Could Do’
By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight

“Plant-based eating has a long, radical history in Black American culture, preserved by institutions and individuals who have understood the power of food and nutrition in the fight against oppression,” writes Amirah Mercer in “A Homecoming.” The piece, published at Eater, explores Mercer’s path to veganism and the plant-based diets of the Black diaspora. While […]

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