“The airlines behind immigration flights aren’t household names, and they rarely land at major airports. They’re part of a shadow world of contractors that transport immigrants for profit. Since 2004, they have charged the U.S. government — and its taxpayers — more than $2 billion.”
Cheri Lucas Rowlands
Cheri has been an editor at Longreads since 2014.
Posted inEditor's Pick
They Executed People for the State of South Carolina. For Some, It Nearly Destroyed Them.
“The tools of death could next be electric volts, bullets or a drug cocktail. Regardless of the method, executions are likely to return to South Carolina. When they do, state workers will again be the ones tasked with handling the weapons — and the consequences.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Great Lockhart Exodus
“For some, Lockhart is a nostalgia trip across a past that may not have ever really existed. For others, it’s just an opportunity to build something better.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Stories Only Women Are Told
“Women need to keep talking. To one another, sure. But also, to the boys and men we hold dear—and not just in times like these, in times of crisis when it feels like we are simply shouting our despair into the void.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Meet the Obsessive Role-Players Who Live Inside the World of Grand Theft Auto
“Renegade developers co-opted this controversial video game’s source code to build a complex alternate universe where breaking character is the cardinal sin. Millions tune in to watch.”
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List, Story
There Are No Seasons: A Reading List on Loss, Love, and Living with Fire in California
Six personal essays about or inspired by wildfire.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Inside the Secretive, Semi-Illicit, High Stakes World of WhatsApp Mango Importing
“Customs restrictions, high transport costs, and a short shelf life have made the world’s greatest mangoes — grown in Pakistan — difficult to come by in the U.S.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Strange, True Story of John Williams and Charles Pennock
“In the early 1900s it wasn’t unusual for men to suddenly go missing. Among them were two accomplished bird experts whose lives turned out to be surprisingly intertwined.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Cresting the Wave
“A surfer comes to grips with a dark family secret born from the swells near Bob Hall Pier.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Coming Age of Climate Trauma
“What should a mental health response look like in the wake of a climate disaster? How can we better prepare communities for the moment when they are forced to confront climate change?”