Do These Pants Make Me Look Like Everyone Else? Be Honest, Alexa. Highlight What happens to taste when machines become the tastemakers? Kyle Chayka meditates on style, algorithms, and our generic yet lullingly unobjectionable future.
Digital Media and the Case of the Missing Archives Commentary The more work that journalists create for the internet, the more work is rendered obsolete.
Before We All Teach Someone a Lesson Highlight Online harassment gets out of hand constantly. Can prosocial bots help turn the tide of anonymous interactions before people become abusive?
Feature Hoffnung um jeden Preis Feature Privatkliniken in Deutschland verkaufen Krebspatienten Hoffnung zu Höchstpreisen — mit durchwachsenem Erfolg.
Feature The Last Resort Feature Private clinics in Germany sell cancer patients hope — and mixed results — at exorbitant prices. Some, like the Hallwang Clinic, cater primarily to foreigners.
Feature Seeking a Roadmap for the New American Middle Class Feature Could Starbucks become the new General Motors? Or could the American worker make it even better?
Feature Welcome to the Center of the Universe Feature For the men and women who use the Deep Space Network to talk to the heavens, failure is not an option.
What Is New York City Without Its Historic Buildings? Highlight A city loses its life-force when it loses its historic buildings.
Feature The Billionaire Philanthropist Feature It’s American tradition for CEOs to stockpile their wealth, avoid taxes, and participate in the theater of giving. Will Jeff Bezos make it scale?
Move Slow and Break Less Highlight Mike Monteiro thinks more designers should refuse to move fast and break things.
Feature It’s a Wonderful World: The Remaking of California Agriculture Feature An interview with Mark Arax about the two decades he spent writing about the San Joaquin Valley empire of Lynda and Stuart Resnick.
To Live and Die in Utopian New Zealand Highlight How the super rich like Peter Thiel are buying land in New Zealand to survive the apocalypse.
Feature The Internet Isn’t Forever Feature When an online news outlet goes out of business, its archives can disappear as well. The new battle over journalism’s digital legacy.
Feature Blockchain Just Isn’t As Radical As You Want It To Be Feature On how a new administrative technology is being conflated with radical politics.
The Stock Market Doesn’t Matter Commentary Trump confuses stock performance with economic well-being. We don’t have to make the same mistake.
The Dark Side of Amazon’s Job Creation Highlight Is any new job a good job? A look at Amazon’s warehouse jobs, where workers struggle to keep up.
The Couple Who Turned a California Desert Into a Multi-Billion Dollar Snack Empire Highlight Taxpayers have helped Stewart and Lynda Resnick turn an irrigated desert into a dangerous and lucrative agricultural gamble.
Translation is Messy, Which is Why Google Translate Will Never Be Very Good at It Highlight The popular online tool is great at rapid decoding. Extracting meaning? Not so much.
Distraction is the New Censorship Highlight Ideas don’t need to be deleted or redacted to be silenced. They can just be drowned out.
Silicon Valley’s Spin Master Highlight After helping shape the public image of numerous tech companies, Margit Wennmachers is now helping shape the story of Silicon Valley itself.
Art in the Age of Blockchain Commentary Why a rare Pepe meme is now easier to authenticate than a Leonardo.
White Privilege on Loop Highlight Ann-Derrick Gaillot traces how Vine’s shuttering last year disproportionately affected the careers of Black Viners.
Money For Nothing in the Bitcoin Bubble Highlight The cryptocurrency gold rush has made millionaires out of those obsessed with changing the world order.
How the American Meat Industry Exploits Undocumented Laborers Highlight Meat processing is one of the most dangerous jobs in America, even more so if you’re one of the undocumented immigrants who sanitizes the facilities.
The More We Disrupt, The More Things Are Exactly The Same Commentary TL;DR: tech titans have a lot of sex and drug parties at which they disrupt conventional morality by… replicating conventional sexist, heteronormative behaviors.
Longreads Best of 2017: Science, Technology, and Business Writing Reading List We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in business, tech, and science writing.
Tearing the Heart from the Music Industry Highlight Digitization has removed the humanity from the music business, from collaboration to mutual respect.
Is Estonia Leading the Way to the Future Digital World? Highlight Estonia’s ultimate goal in digitizing its society has less to do with automation than it does with embracing the transient nature of labor in the European marketplace.
The NFL Has Pimped Its Players for Too Long Highlight The disturbing parallels between professional football and the business of pimping
A Pact Between You, God, and the Dance Floor Highlight Dancing the nights away with bar and bat mitzvah professionals known as “party motivators.”
