“My two-steps-from-sexagenarian ass is old enough to know all the avant funk-jazz sources of [Kamasi] Washington and company’s aesthetic (Horace Tapscott, Sanders, Tyner, The Crusaders, Stanley Cowell, Strata East, Black Jazz) so The Epic couldn’t reach my ears as a spiritual, political and musical revelation. But it has been fascinating nonetheless to witness young friends […]
Peter Rubin
Posted inEditor's Pick
Passion Plan
“Despite any collateral damage, Nintendo and their peers will keep squeezing maximum profit from the biggest, most proselytized audiences they can assemble for however long they can. In practice, this is what ‘convergence culture’ looks like. Playing games that cite other games that can be frictionlessly purchased on devices you can take everywhere, and then […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Therapists Using AI to Make Therapy Better
“Ultimately, the approach may reveal exactly how psychotherapy works in the first place, something that clinicians and researchers are still largely in the dark about. A new understanding of therapy’s active ingredients could open the door to personalized mental-health care, allowing doctors to tailor psychiatric treatments to particular clients much as they do when prescribing […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Truth Is Elusive in Attack on a French Soccer Star
“The assault of a top women’s player made headlines, with masked men, a metal bar and the arrest of a teammate. But weeks later, new details suggest the original story might have been wrong.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
On “Succession,” Jeremy Strong Doesn’t Get the Joke
When I told Strong that I, too, thought of the show as a dark comedy, he looked at me with incomprehension and asked, “In the sense that, like, Chekhov is comedy?” No, I said, in the sense that it’s funny. “That’s exactly why we cast Jeremy in that role,” McKay told me. “Because he’s not […]
Posted inReading List
Impersonation Nation: A Very Scammy Reading List
Five stories that demonstrate we’re living in the golden age of the personal hoax.
Posted inEditor's Pick
An Interview With Black Thought
“I think attention, or the lack thereof, during one’s career has the potential to make or break one’s journey. And during the times when there was less attention on me, it was just what I wanted and needed. But what happens when you have something that propels you from one level of celebrity to another […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Elephant in the Room
“A majority of Americans say they have a positive view of unions. When they vote for Republicans, as lots of union members do, they’re not voting that way because they want to disempower unions. They believe they’re voting to disempower the ‘freeloaders’ — a category that’s obviously inseparable, in the American context, from race. This […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
“Who the Fuck Cares About Adam McKay?” (We Do, and With Good Reason)
“But success, as we’re obliged to say in the personal-profiles business, has come at a price—bouts of depression, a heart attack, a rotating cast of therapists, a tortured relationship with his mother, and a bitter breakup with his former creative partner Will Ferrell. As it turns out, every movie is the most personal movie Adam […]
Posted inAnnouncements
Announcing the 2021 Longreads Member Drive
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