A History of American Protest Music: Which Side Are You On? By Tom Maxwell Feature Just as we were in the 1930s and ’60s, America is suffering a moral crisis. We have to decide which side we are on: hate and exclusion, or justice, inclusion, and democracy?
‘I was pain incarnate.’ By Krista Stevens Highlight As she lives with terminal cancer, Teva Harrison reflects on how fentanyl is helping her make the most of the time she has left.
Not Quite Not White By Longreads Feature Sharmila Sen grew up understanding distinctions between castes and religions, between the educated and the illiterate. Race was a distinction she didn’t understand until she came to America.
The Man Without a Nose By Krista Stevens Highlight Cancer may have claimed Steve Bean Levy’s nose, but not his sense of humor.
Pair These Wines With Armageddon and Veal By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight A California cult had more success producing award-winning wine than sustaining their religion, so why are thousands of bottles gathering dust in a storeroom?
To Be Clean By Natassja Schiel Feature A tender relationship with a fellow exotic dancer shows Natassja Schiel how to love her sister, a recovering addict.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week By Longreads Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Nell Boeschenstein, Hannah Giorgis, David Davis, Chris Randle, and Kelly Conaboy.
Semi-Fluid States: The Rigid Line of Straightness By Minda Honey Feature Minda Honey interrogates her sexuality and questions the future of straight-by-default.
The Scientist at the Center of a Heated Scientific Feud By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight When one female scientist’s thirty years of research contradicted the established theory of dinosaur extinction, people started calling her a bitch that should be burned at the stake.
North Carolina’s Military Toxic Waste Negligence By Katie Kosma Highlight A reporter’s North Carolina hometown water supply contaminated millions of people, including her mother and two of her now-deceased brothers.
‘I’d Rather Import Water Than Export Children’ By Catherine Cusick Highlight Growth advocates in St. George, Utah want a billion-dollar pipeline to support a rising population. Conservationists don’t.
Appropriation in the Land of Enchantment By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight In New Mexico, cultural appropriation by newcomers is fueling Indigenous activism over colonialism and property rights.
A New Citizen Leaves a Lost America By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Journalist Rebecca Mead explains why she first left England for the United States, and why she’s now moving back to a country that isn’t necessarily home.
Finding Time to Write Even During the Busiest of Times By Sari Botton Highlight How Jami Attenberg helped form a supportive online literary community with #1000WordsofSummer.
Giving Up the Ghost By Emily Urquhart Feature After his death, Emily Urquhart ‘sees’ her brother with regularity. Nearly 20 years later, stories and science help to explain why.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week By Longreads Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Steve Stecklow, Lynn Johnson, Steven Hyden, Morgan Jerkins, and Chris McGreal.
Brown Girl with Bubblegum By Lisa Williamson Rosenberg Feature As a mixed-race kid with free-form hair, Lisa Rosenberg believed learning to blow bubblegum bubbles would be her ticket to an idealized (white) American girlhood.
Twelve Longreads for Aretha Franklin By Danielle Jackson Reading List Aretha Franklin was born March 25, 1942 and died Thursday, August 16, 2018.
Convenience Store Woman By Longreads Feature If the convenience store and Japanese society are so similar, why can Keiko Furukura function in one and not the other?
A Girl’s Guide to Missiles By Longreads Feature A professor returns to the California military base where she grew up to make sense of her family’s role developing weapons for the US government.
On Not Being Able to Read By Tajja Isen Feature In law school, they told me I wouldn’t be able to read anymore. That the pleasure of the text, like a lover in a non-law degree, would slowly grow opaque to me.
An Introduction To Death By A.M. Homes Feature Raising a teenager of her own offers author A.M. Homes a glimpse into her mother’s experience of raising her.
Finding True North By Amy Bracken Feature Thousands of Haitians who fled the United States on foot last summer have started very different lives in Canada.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week By Longreads Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from C.J. Chivers, David Ewing Duncan, Steve Silberman, Anna Wiener, and David Marchese.
At Home on Carmine Street By Abigail Rasminsky Feature Abigail Rasminsky thought she’d survived a robbery unscathed. Then she realized it was following her everywhere.
War, What is It Good For? Absolutely Nothing By Krista Stevens Highlight “Across these years, hundreds of thousands of young men and women signed on in good faith and served in the lower and middle ranks. They did not make policy. They lived within it.”
Michelle Tea and the Betrayal of Queer Memoir By Alana Mohamed Feature Memoir is always a betrayal. When writing about life in queer subcultures, the harm of honesty can feel even greater.
Dog Cloning: Controversial and Downright Creepy By Krista Stevens Highlight A clone is not a clone, it’s a twin born at a different time — one that is only ever about 85 percent the same as the original.
Every Mission is a Suicide Mission By Nicholas Mainieri Feature Accompanying a contestant to a pro-level Galaga tournament to discover how many digital space bugs you have to destroy to find renown, community, and a modicum of inner peace.
The 17-Year Itch By Laura Jean Baker Feature Laura Jean Baker finds that being a feminist married to a progressive man isn’t a fail-safe against sexism occasionally intruding in their marriage.
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