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On Sept. 22, 1987 an American pilot named Tim Dorsey shot down a U.S. plane during a flying exercise. The incident could have ended his career, but it didn’t: “Dorsey offered compelling evidence that something was changing in the Navy. Every time he was up for promotion, a selection board reviewed his performance and the […]

A 10-week investigation into Carissa Carpenter, a self-described entertainment executive who has proposed building a $2.8 billion movie studio in a small farming town in Northern California: “So who is Carissa Carpenter? “Those who have encountered the California native – in City Council chambers and in the courts – have widely divergent views, with descriptions […]

[Fiction] Two brothers begin to drift apart in India during the late ’60s after one decides to study in the U.S. and the other becomes a Naxalite: “Richard asked Subhash about India, about its caste system, its poverty. Who was to blame? “I don’t know. These days everyone just blames everyone else. “But is there […]

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.

There are glimmers of peace found in Somalia’s capital—in a country that hasn’t had a functioning government for 22 years: “One brightly painted brick at a time, the shelled-out city is coming back to life. Along Mogadishu’s tree-lined drags, shopfronts form a tableau of hope. Outsized poster-paint impressions of burgers, fizzy drink bottles and doughnuts […]

Twenty years ago, Steve Rolln and DC the Brain Supreme released their hit “Whoomp! (There It Is)”. The story behind the one-hit wonder: “When he learned about the chant, Whoomp! There it is­, in the summer of 1992, he pitched the idea for a bass-heavy party song to Steve. Both men were now 26 and […]

Former Minnesota State-Mankato head football coach Todd Hoffner’s career ended after being accused of producing and possessing child pornography. He’s fighting to get his reputation back: “Hoffner and his lawyer held a news conference to address the judge’s decision. He wore a purple tie, the university color, and read a prepared statement about waking from […]

Words of caution from the former CTO of Twitter. The startup life isn’t rebellious—it’s the new corporate ladder: “The machine doesn’t care about you. In fact, the machine is designed with the understanding that most startups will fail, or at most offer unremarkable returns to investors. The majority of the companies in many VC portfolios […]

Hilary Armstrong is a literature student at U.C. Santa Barbara and a Longreads intern. She recently shared six stories for the science-fiction newbie, so next up, she’s tackling fantasy.

An upsurge of abandoned, foreclosed homes in Chicago’s poor neighborhoods has inspired an activist group called the Anti-Eviction Campaign to fix up the properties and provide them to homeless families: “The idea for the Anti-Eviction Campaign actually came from South Africa. Toussaint Losier had traveled there to study the direct-action tactics of an organization called […]