The soundtrack of my life goes back a long way. Here are six longreads about music, for the love of it.

Five stories demonstrating how the green rush nurtured the best and worst that U.S. capitalism had to offer

Poet, painter, composer, musician, and so much more.

Five longreads on the culture and creativity that games have spawned.

Faith and cosplay at the Hill Cumorah Pageant.

“The rest of my life will always be entwined with rheumatoid arthritis. But it’s my choice to also be something more, to not feel sick, to still find those shadows of a dancer, which is to say tiny flecks of magic, within me.”

Lisa Whittington-Hill suggests there’s a distinct gender bias in celebrity memoirs. Where female celebrities are expected to expose all, male writers get to write about whatever they want.

If you underestimate a woman determined to avenge violence against her daughters, prepare yourself to get sacked. On repeat.

How CSNY fumbled a chance to record their best album.

Killer beats, huge hype, and failure to follow through.

“The Wall Street Journal recently used the headline ‘We All Need OCD Now’ for an article on COVID-19 … Finally, my debilitating mental illness has a timely hook!”

“In a few years’ time, however, she became a different kind of working woman: a musician by trade and one of the hardest working women in country music.”

In an interview at GQ, Patricia Lockwood talks about the perils of being extremely online.

Fellow singer-songwriter Jessica Lea Mayfield, who frequently toured with Earle, described his gift more simply: “He was able to explain trouble better than most.”

Earl King’s “discs were among the rare ones where the words were as important as the music, where blues guitar was balanced with second-line piano, and where the B-sides were as strong as the A-sides.”

“In art and grief there are days you’re not proud of, days the emotions turn ugly, days the images don’t turn out the way you want. But that’s the human in us, and it belongs in the process. “

On Yoko Ono’s 1974 album “A Story,” and stepping out from behind the ever-present shadow of John Lennon.

Neil Peart “was brilliant enough to skip two grades, starting high school at 12. He began drum lessons, practicing for a full year without an actual kit.”

Happy birthday, Dolly Parton! Here are seven longreads about the American singer-songwriter.

“Gilliam does believe that the end of society may soon be upon us. The question for him is: What shape will the new one take?”

“The world should not, cannot, go back to business as usual without a clearer understanding and consciousness of how we live.”

Pravesh Bhardwaj read and and shared 304 short stories on the #longreads Twitter hashtag in 2020. Here are his favorites.

Nothing made sense in 2020 — unless you were on the internet.

Alexandra Tanner spent this weird year following Mormon mommy bloggers on Instagram.

“Tyrian purple was a difficult color to manufacture. Thousands of snails were required to create a single ounce of dye.”

Here’s a selection of profiles that resonated with us this year.

“The first one I saw was on the path outside my house: a single white plastic glove, the fingers curled inward like a sleeping animal.”

Our top editors’ picks in arts and culture writing this year.

“Impending parenthood makes you reconsider the context of your own upbringing, and puts the work your parents did into a new light.”

“Undeniably, eBird … brings birders together and allows for rapid information sharing. It’s also created new—and sometimes contentious—etiquette and social dynamics.”