Wait, What? By Soraya Roberts Feature It’s surprising when stodgy institutions award progressive artists, and surprises, even good ones, are alarming — so we immediately burden the winners with the weight of symbolism.
Regarding the Pain of Oprah By Soraya Roberts Feature She gets a mansion and she gets a boat and she gets a jet! And you get to suffer and then maybe pull yourself up by your bootstraps, if you’re lucky enough and bare enough of your private pain.
Be a Good Sport By Soraya Roberts Feature Competitive sports can mean professional and financial success — if they don’t compromise your mental health first. ‘Cheer’ and ‘Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez’ show how athletics can hurt as much as they can heal.
Menace Too Society By Soraya Roberts Feature Cancel culture suggests we can change the world from the outside in, but the misogyny and racism are coming from inside the house.
Happily Never After By Soraya Roberts Feature By protecting ourselves and no one else, we destroy ourselves along with everyone else.
What the World’s Most Controversial Herbicide Is Doing to Rural Argentina By Longreads Feature After enormous lobbying efforts, Monsanto’s GMO soybeans, treated with Roundup, became the country’s largest export, as cancer rates and other health issues skyrocketed.
Don’t Let Old Wounds Die Out By Longreads Commentary Our last editors’ roundtable of the season, with guest Nick Chrastil.
The Poetry We Need and the Chitchat We Don’t By Longreads Commentary What we all need to hear right now, with special guest Marisa Siegel, Editor in Chief of The Rumpus.
The Great White Nope By Soraya Roberts Feature Canada’s old white publishing institutions are a lesson in what happens when your media industry contracts: journalism no longer serves the reality of the country.
Rural California Feeds the Nation, But Too Many Rural Residents Can’t Feed and House Themselves By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight In a fertile valley that boats an $8 billion agricultural economy, the people who work the fields and in processing plants rarely enjoy the economic security that the fields’ corporate owners do.
Open Secrets: Celebrity Sexuality and Athletic Abuse By Longreads Commentary Editors discuss the gender politics of music criticism, how young womxn drive conversations around cultural figures, institutionalized discrimination in sport, and more.
OK Listener, We’ll Talk About OK Boomer By Longreads Commentary Longreads editors chat with Internet culture reporter Taylor Lorenz about ok boomer, TikTok, patriotism, and more.
Burning Out By Sarah Trent Feature Search and rescue teams train for the worst conditions. But the worst conditions are getting worse. Are they ready for the next big disaster?
The Podcast That Explains Why We’re All Wrong By Mark Armstrong Commentary How Sarah Marshall and Michael Hobbes debunk news scandals of the past.
When It Comes to the Climate Crisis, Don’t Forget the Power of the States By Livia Gershon Feature Even with the federal government in chaos, there’s still plenty of opportunity to solve a global problem.
Influence: Who Gains It and Who Wields It and Who Abuses It By Longreads Commentary On the fate of Deadspin, recent longreads on Airbnb and influencers, and the uncanny canon of Wakefield Press.
California Burning By Tessa Love Feature A year after the Camp Fire, Tessa Love contemplates home, California’s undoing, and what it means to belong.
Whose Boots on the Ground By Kiley Bense Feature We invest a great deal of collective energy in commemorating our war dead. But do we remember them?
A View of the Bay By Aimée Lutkin Feature A family’s losses after Hurricane Sandy didn’t come in the usual order or with the usual speed.
Less Work, More Friends, No Consequences By Longreads Reading List Workaholics burn the midnight oil, while the rich and powerful fail up.
Editor’s Roundtable: Stories About Stories By Longreads Commentary Longreads editors discuss stories in ProPublica/The New Yorker, Wired, and Esquire.
Editor’s Roundtable: Climate of the Future, Music of the Past By Longreads Commentary Longreads editors discuss stories in Miami New Times, The New Yorker, 5280 Magazine, and The Believer.
It’s Time To Talk About Solar Geoengineering By Longreads Feature We need to start talking about seemingly drastic approaches to the climate crisis, such as sun-dimming aerosols, right now — or we risk losing democratic control of the process.
Fire Sale: Finance and Fascism in the Amazon Rainforest By Will Meyer Commentary From global capital to YouTube, carbon credits to indigenous land defenders in their own words, Will Meyer has compiled a reading list on who lit the match and how the fire might be stopped.
A Single Sentence By Longreads Feature In an clandestinely written memoir, a jailed Turkish novelist and political dissident remembers the single sentence that changed everything at the moment of his arrest.
Editor’s Roundtable: Democracy Needs Healing Crystals By Longreads Commentary Longreads editors discuss stories in The New Yorker, The Guardian, and Politico.
What Should Universal Basic Income Look Like? By Livia Gershon Feature Andrew Yang made it news, but we need a better plan.
Downsizing the American Black Middle Class By Bryce Covert Feature Government jobs helped thousands of Black families move into the middle class. Now, increasing calls for government privatization are pushing them back out.
Editor’s Roundtable: Fans, ‘Grams and Installment Plans By Longreads Commentary Longreads editors discuss recent stories in Inc., The Cut, and The Baffler.
How Thailand’s Rich Escape Prosecution By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Thailand’s criminal justice system is plauged by an accepted double standard, where corruption prevails.
