“We saw it in Yosemite. But you have to look beyond the bathrooms.”
Carolyn Wells
Posted inEditor's Pick
Hidden in Plain Sight
“Jewish children who were ‘hidden’ in Christian families during the Holocaust have much to teach us about memory and trauma.”
Posted inNewsletter
Help Us Stay a Home for the Weird
“Invite writers and readers in—magic will follow.” Six years ago, I published my first essay as an editor for Longreads. Margot Harris’s “Under the Knife” opens with a scene of cupcakes shaped like private parts (and goes on to discuss the guilt of having cosmetic surgery as a feminist). What a privilege, I thought at […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Secret Life of Horus
“Tracing a mummy’s strange odyssey, from ancient Egypt to Edmonton, and the secrets still entombed.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Extremely Offline: What Happened When a Pacific Island Was Cut Off From the Internet
“A colossal volcanic eruption in January 2022 ripped apart the underwater cables that connect Tonga to the world – and exposed the fragility of 21st-century life.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Zackery Died After Climbing on Top of a Subway Train. Who Is to Blame?
“Norma Nazario didn’t understand what had motivated her 15-year-old son to climb on top of a train one evening. Then she found his phone.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Human Stain Remover: What Britain’s Greatest Extreme Cleaner Learned From 25 Years on the Job
“From murder scenes to whale blubber, Ben Giles has seen it – and cleaned it – all. In their stickiest hours, people rely on him to restore order”
Posted inEditor's Pick
‘I Love You Too!’ My Family’s Creepy, Unsettling Week with an AI Toy
“The cuddly chatbot Grem is designed to ‘learn’ your child’s personality, while every conversation they have is recorded, then transcribed by a third party. It wasn’t long before I wanted this experiment to be over …”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The New Hotness
The sport of aufguss, or competitive sauna, is full of surprises.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Madness on a Mountain: For 15 Years, My Mom was Trapped in a Mutual Psychosis
“She fell mysteriously ill while living in a remote cabin with my stepdad, and I suspected it was a cry for help. Then came the unexpected diagnosis: folie à deux.”