“Laid-off lawyers, history PhDs, and scientists are now part of a miserable gig economy in which they’re teaching AI how to do their old jobs.”
Cheri Lucas Rowlands
Cheri has been an editor at Longreads since 2014.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Notes From a Burmese Prison
“I came to Myanmar because, if our worst fears were coming to pass, I thought its journalists might have something to teach me.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
What I Found When I Tried to Walk Across Dallas in a Day
“Determined to find adventure in my own backyard, I tramped across my famously pedestrian-averse hometown. The most memorable part turned out to be the serendipitous encounters with neighbors I met along the way.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Sense of Scents
“The annual olfactory rush of cedar pollen is a sign of home.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Who Can I Dance With?
“From sneaking into underground basements in Tehran to learning to dance with almost no words in Northern California, I had done everything I could.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
This Is the Worst Thing That Could Happen to the International Space Station
“There’s a good way to throw out the ISS. And then there’s a really bad way.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Why Conservationists Are Making Rhinos Radioactive
“Rapid DNA tests, x-ray fluorescence guns, and other technologies are being deployed in the fight against wildlife trafficking.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Long Now of the Web: Inside the Internet Archive’s Fight Against Forgetting
“A comprehensive engineering and operational analysis of the Internet Archive.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Mama Don’t Take My Chromophobia Away
“Pantone’s 2026 Color of the Year is selling us a white fantasy.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Compost Modernity!
“The vision of solarpunk: joining nature with technology in vibrantly inclusive ways to create a world that truly blooms.”