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Meat industry lobbyists are attempting to push through legislation that would make it difficult for whistle-blowers to report animal abuse at farm facilities. Many states already have so-called ag gag provisions: “Recognizing that, in the era of smartphones and social media, any worker could easily shoot and distribute damning video, meat producers began pressing for […]

Our expectations with regard to privacy and secrecy. In 1844, the British government was accused of opening people’s mail. Lepore compares the case to the NSA’s alleged digging into our digital lives: “The particular technology matters little; the axiom holds. It’s only a feature, though, of a centuries-long historical transformation: the secularization of mystery. A […]

Picks from Emily Perper, a freelance editor and reporter currently completing a service year in Baltimore with the Episcopal Service Corps. Share your favorite stories in the comments.

His pregnant girlfriend’s father had abandoned her and her mother when she was young, and the writer is determined to prove to them that he’ll be a different kind of man and father: “When Kenyatta was 2, her father walked out on his family. He never returned, but his ghost walks with Kenyatta and Camille, […]

Homeland Security agent Jovana Deas was a rising star at her agency, “an exemplary example to her peers,” according to supervisors. She was also doing favors for family members with ties to the Sinaloa drug cartel: “Agents are allowed to search for people in the government database only when it’s relevant to an assignment. They’re […]

The comedian reflects on how we rationalize the decisions we make in our life—from stealing other people’s material to defending rape jokes: “Well, I stole a joke. Not consciously. I heard something I found hilarious, mis-remembered it as an inspiration of my own, and then said it onstage. And got big laughs. “Here it is: […]

This week’s Member Pick is a chapter from Brendan I. Koerner‘s new book The Skies Belong to Us, the story of Roger Holder and Cathy Kerkow, who in 1972 hijacked Western Airlines Flight 701 headed from Los Angeles to Seattle. Koerner, a contributing editor for Wired who’s been featured on Longreads in the past, explains:

The writer reflects on the difficult relationship between her grandmother and mother, and how it has shaped her relationship with her mother: “No wonder I’ve preferred not to think too much about what my grandmother and I share, but listening to all those eulogies, and spending three days with my mother in a tiny Swiss […]

The story of the man who led the Anonymous campaign against the Steubenville rapists: “As KYAnonymous, Lostutter had already won some renown for KnightSec by attacking revenge-porn king Hunter Moore and helping shut down a Westboro Baptist Church protest. But the decision to take on the Steubenville case unleashed more powerful forces than he had […]

For Father’s Day, we’ve unlocked our recent Longreads Member Pick, chapter one from Drew Magary‘s new memoir on fatherhood, Someone Could Get Hurt (Gotham Books).