Thanks to our Longreads Members’ support, we tracked down a vintage story from Dave Eggers’s Might Magazine. It’s from Jason Zengerle, a staff writer for Politico and former contributing editor for New York magazine and GQ who’s been featured on Longreads often in the past.
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Fruit of Labor
A look at the Pearson family peach farm in Georgia, and the labor issues the farm faces every season when it needs workers: “The man’s Spanish is limited, but it doesn’t matter. Many of these men were here last summer, and the summer before, and the summer before. A few have made the thirty-six-hour bus […]
‘You’re in Trouble. Am I Right?’: My Unsentimental Education
A story of love, LSD and higher education. Monroe is the author of five books, most recently the memoir, On the Outskirts of Normal. This is from her sixth book, in progress.
The Elvis Impersonator, the Karate Instructor, a Fridge Full of Severed Heads, and the Plot 2 Kill the President
The strange story behind the Mississippi man who sent ricin laced letters to a local judge, a senator, and President Obama: “After a long and pointless back-and-forth, they put their cards on the table. A Homeland Security agent asks Curtis point-blank, ‘”Are you familiar with ricin?” “‘And I say, “I don’t like rice. I don’t […]
Do You Know Where Your Children Are?
What happens to frozen embryos that aren’t used during the in vitro fertilization process? Ford reflects on his and his wife’s experience having twins and questions about how to handle the remaining frozen embryos: “The first option we considered with our remaining embryos was to do nothing. Just leave them on ice and make a […]
Reading List: The Political Mistress
From Monica to the D.C. Madam, some all-time favorite stories on politics, sex and power.
Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu
The Boston team was the worst in twenty-seven seasons. A jangling medley of incompetent youth and aging competence, the Red Sox were finishing in seventh place only because the Kansas City Athletics had locked them out of the cellar. They were scheduled to play the Baltimore Orioles, a much nimbler blend of May and December, […]
Fragile
A tragic accident and a family’s struggle to process what led to the night’s events: Often, in the hours after midnight, Bill thinks about everything that has happened, about his daughter and the accident. There have been so many moments for the Grohs to process: the time Jill said she was considering coming home to […]
The Doctor Who Made a Revolution
How Sara Josephine Baker revolutionized medical care through her work in the New York City Health Department in the early 20th Century. She chronicled her experiences in a memoir, Fighting for Life: “In her first year at the Bureau of Child Hygiene, Baker sent nurses to the most deadly ward on the Lower East Side. […]
The Secret Life of Bobby Ryan
Hockey star Bobby Ryan’s difficult past: “Bob Stevenson took on an alias, Shane Ryan. Ryan was his wife’s maiden name, so it was no stretch for Melody to use it again when she drove across the country with Bobby to rejoin her husband and try to stitch the family back together. The newly minted Mr. […]
