“Millions of Americans a year visit national parks and many leave their business anywhere. Contrary to popular belief, that deluge of poop is not going to decompose.”
Cheri Lucas Rowlands
Cheri has been an editor at Longreads since 2014.
Posted inEditor's Pick
What Happens After A.I. Destroys College Writing?
“The demise of the English paper will end a long intellectual tradition, but it’s also an opportunity to reëxamine the purpose of higher education.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Why One Geologist Thinks We Should All Pay More Attention to Rocks
“Professor Marcia Bjornerud urges us to understand rocks as records of earlier versions of the planet—and as a call to protect its future.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Zero Zen
“A great exchange rate, ChatGPT, and kimono-wearing bros have turned Kyoto into the loveliest tourist trap on earth.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
How “Cabin Porn” Took Over the Internet
“A rough-hewn A-frame in a snowscape or a tiny log shack by a lake—why off-grid, simple living has long captured the American imagination, and our online attention.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Walk In These
“Shoes are deeply personal, literally moulded to our lives. But they create our social lives as much as express them.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Wild Within the Walls
“From antiquity to modern times, Rome has been entangled with the wild animals who creep, slither, scurry, and nest among its pillars and palaces.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
How Societies Morph With the Seasons
“An evolutionary anthropologist details seasonal changes among foraging communities—and distills how the fixed political structures of industrialized societies are an outlier in human history.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
3 Teens Almost Got Away With Murder. Then Police Found Their Google Searches
“An arson attack in Colorado had detectives stumped. The way they solved the case could put everyone at risk.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
They Asked an A.I. Chatbot Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling.
“Generative A.I. chatbots are going down conspiratorial rabbit holes and endorsing wild, mystical belief systems. For some people, conversations with the technology can deeply distort reality.”