“The members of Longevity House are united by two things: a willingness to hand over $100,000 and a burning desire to live forever. Inside the weird world of cryotherapy, biocharging and fecal transplants.”
Cheri Lucas Rowlands
Cheri has been an editor at Longreads since 2014.
The Lessons of Uzbekistan’s Lost Sea
“One of history’s worst environmental disasters is now a tourist attraction. What can it teach us about the fate of humankind?”
With Old Traditions and New Tech, Young Inuit Chart Their Changing Landscape
For generations, hunting and being deeply in tune with the land have been essential parts of Inuit culture in the Hudson Bay region of northernmost Canada. As the coastline changes, Inuit youth are combining next-generation tech and tools with the Indigenous wisdom of their elders to chart the evolving marine landscape — and make it […]
The Maintenance Race
In this fascinating piece, Stewart Brand recounts the journeys of three sailors competing in an around-the-world race in 1968, their very different approaches, and the important role of maintenance in their voyages. Every piece of equipment on board, and the structure of the boat itself, would be stressed for months on end. Since going ashore […]
To Live in the Ending
“I am not sure I know how to unbraid the language of the apocalypse from all this and still have a voice left to speak to you.”
The Twisted Life of Clippy
In the 1990s, Microsoft created a virtual assistant in Microsoft Office that users found annoying — so it was swiftly retired. For Seattle Met, Benjamin Cassidy recounts the history of an unloved and doomed office assistant that has lived on in pop and nerd culture. These days, an annoying Word creature might seem eminently tolerable […]
Care Tactics
In an ableist world, health care systems and tech innovators are more invested in high-tech solutions and shiny objects that don’t consider disabled folks’ actual needs during the design process. Many in the disability and caregiving communities rely on their own creative hacks instead, leaning on a culture of collaboration and shared knowledge to make […]
My Dad and Kurt Cobain
This excerpt from Hua Hsu’s memoir offers a glimpse into his parents’ generation of immigrants from Taiwan to America, and the faxes they sent to each other about homework, zines, and Nirvana. My parents had fond memories of listening to the station when they were teen-agers, back when it was Armed Forces Radio. In time, […]
She Never Hurt Her Kids. So Why Is a Mother Serving More Time Than the Man Who Abused Her Daughter?
Oklahoma incarcerates more women than almost any other state. Under its punishing, under-the-radar “failure to protect” law, mothers — even those who are victims of domestic violence — can be sent to prison because of their supposed failure to keep their children out of harm’s way. In this devastating read, Samantha Michaels tells the story […]
‘She Made Us Happy’: The All-Star Dreams of Uvalde’s Biggest José Altuve Fan
“We didn’t have to grow up alongside the Nueces River, listening to songs and stories of the violence all around us. But we did.”
