Author Archives

Longreads
The staff of Longreads.

The History of the Glock in America—and What Happened To Our Conversation About Gun Laws

The History of the Glock in America—and What Happened To Our Conversation About Gun Laws

The Man Who Wouldn't Die: Meet Olympian and Biggest Loser Contestant Rulon Gardner

The Man Who Wouldn’t Die: Meet Olympian and Biggest Loser Contestant Rulon Gardner

Europe's Odd Couple

Europe’s Odd Couple

AIDS and Media Coverage, the Early Years: A Longreads List

Logan Sachon is a writer and editor based in Portland.

***

Rare cancer seen in 41 homosexuals 

1981. New York Times. Lawrence K. Altman. 

903 words / 3.5 minutes 

No mention of AIDS, no utter of HIV, but this is where mainstream media’s coverage of AIDS starts, with the New York Times first mention of a new disease in 1981. 

—-

AIDS in the heartland

1987. St Paul Pioneer Press. Jacqui Banaszynski. 

21,000 words (est) / 84 minutes (note: not Instapaper-friendly)

This Pulitzer-winning three-part series follows Dick Hanson — farmer, political activist, and gay man — from diagnosis to death. The writer describes the piece as such: “I wanted to be able not just to write about a disease, but THIS disease and all that went with it … the prejudice, the fear, the distance, the judging, the legal, financial and moral consequences, the lifestyle and the love …” Many people cite this article as the first time they were really drawn in to the AIDS crisis. 

—-

Fighting AIDS all the way

1989. New York Times Magazine. Larry Josephs. 

3,695 words / 15 minutes

The harrowing plunge 

1990. New York Times Magazine. Larry Josephs. 

5,905 words / 24 minutes 

Larry Josephs, 34, writer about AIDS, dies of the disease 

1991. New York Times. Alessandra Stanley 

360 words / 1.5 minutes 

In these two essays, Josephs writes first about his diagnoses and treatment and then about what happens when he gets very sick. Heart-wrenching personal voice coupled with details and research from someone who desperately wanted and needed to know everything about the disease. Honest, brave first-person journalism. 

—-

Out of control: AIDS and the corruption of medical science 

2006. Harper’s. Celia Farber. 

12,163 words / 48 minutes 

From 1987 to 1995, Farber wrote a column in SPIN about AIDS called “Words from the front.” (Those articles can be found here.) She was one of the first and only journalists to cover scientists who questioned the link between AIDS and HIV and questioned the use of AZT to fight it. These scientists — including National Academy of Sciences member and Berkeley researcher Dr. Peter Duesberg — were labeled “AIDS denialists” by the scientific community, and Farber’s coverage of them put her in that pot, too. This article was published in 2006, but Farber had been writing about its topic for nearly 20 years. The piece provoked heated responses, including letters from the scientists who are credited with discovering  HIV. This response from the Columbia Journalism Review is in line with the criticism of the piece, the author, and its thesis. 

Gram Junkies: In Transportation Design the Key Issue Is Not Speed, but Weight

Gram Junkies: In Transportation Design the Key Issue Is Not Speed, but Weight

Transcript: President Obama's Address in Tucson

Transcript: President Obama’s Address in Tucson

The Terminator Scenario: Are We Giving Our Military Machines Too Much Power?

The Terminator Scenario: Are We Giving Our Military Machines Too Much Power?

Night-Shifting For the Hip Fleet

Night-Shifting For the Hip Fleet

The Road to Economic Crisis Is Paved with Euros

The Road to Economic Crisis Is Paved with Euros

Whatever Happened to Alternative Nation? Part 7: The Death of Layne Staley and Bradley Nowell

Whatever Happened to Alternative Nation? Part 7: The Death of Layne Staley and Bradley Nowell