2020: One Year, Lifetime Consequences By Carolyn Wells Highlight “I think there is a better-than-good chance that our behaviors will change as a result of this pandemic. I am currently creating a ledger and thinking about opportunities, not just for innovation, but for a better humanity.”
Is the Cure for Cancer Locked in Shrunken Heads from the Amazon? By Seyward Darby Highlight Could shrunken heads from the Amazon hold the key to curing cancer?
Neighborhood Watch: The Strange Aftermath of a ‘Karen’ Encounter By Seyward Darby Highlight In a progressive New Jersey community, racial solidarity is complicated.
Longreads Best of 2020: Essays By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Feature A small sampling of standout essays published this year.
Loving Molly, and Mourning Her: A Husband’s Extraordinary Essay By Seyward Darby Highlight Blake Butler writes movingly about his late wife, poet Molly Brodak.
The Alarmist: Is One of the Pandemic’s Loudest Scientific Voices Helping or Hurting Public Health? By Seyward Darby Highlight Meet Eric Feigl-Ding, the town crier of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trapped in Limbo Down Under By Seyward Darby Highlight In Australia, some 30,000 people live in a state of legal uncertainty crafted by politicians.
The Secrets of a Hidden Diary By Seyward Darby Highlight A hidden diary, a love story, and a mystery.
How Should We Talk About Suicide Online? By Seyward Darby Highlight “People are dying after joining a “pro-choice” suicide forum. How much is the site to blame?”
Deconstructing Disney: Motherhood and the Taming of Maleficent By Jeanna Kadlec Feature Last week, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, was released on Disney+. Jeanna Kadlec takes this opportunity to explore how Disney has dealt with their most powerful of witches.
Find Yourself By Elizabeth Isadora Gold Feature From way back in ’80s Philadelphia, Elizabeth Isadora Gold remembers her first writing teacher, the mail art artist/lyricist Stu Horn.
How to Learn Everything: The MasterClass Diaries By Irina Dumitrescu Feature A professor embarks on a six-month binge of celebrity-led online courses.
When Boomers Must Zoom By Carolyn Wells Highlight “A friend who teaches at another university tells me that a new Yiddish word has been invented: oysgezoomt, ‘over-exposed to Zoom,’ as in ‘Ich bin azoy oysgezoomt!’ (‘I’m so done with Zoom!’)”
Five Longreads Stories Selected for 2020 Editions of the ‘Best American’ Series By Sari Botton Highlight Congratulations to Matthew Salesses, Tim Requarth, Mojgan Ghazirad, Shanna B. Tiayon, Joe Fassler, and The Counter, our partner in co-publishing Fassler’s piece.
And Then We Grew Up By Sarah Menkedick Feature On letting go of potential and other myths of greatness.
Scrap the To Do Lists By Carolyn Wells Highlight “If we’re lucky enough to be able to shelter in place and we’re not using that time to launch podcasts and personal projects and life-hack our way to some cargo-cult pastiche of normality, are we somehow letting the side down?”
Grieving, but Calmed by a Different Kind of Storm By Stephanie Land Feature In isolation, Stephanie Land finds surprising relief from PTSD — and discovers she is able to write again.
On Watching Boys Play Music By Eryn Loeb Feature “With a drink in my hand and earplugs responsibly in place, I’m very aware that I’ve spent more than half my life essentially standing in the same spot: off to one side of the stage (close but not too close), eyes forward, shifting weight from foot to foot.”
The Coastal Shelf By juneameliarose Feature June Amelia Rose remembers coming out in her youth to a turbulent family as her mother died of cancer.
Why I’m Giving Myself Permission to Keep Writing at This Time By Sari Botton Highlight Our stories matter. And they are our legacies for future generations. (Plus: some free writing resources.)
“The Anger of Women is an Earth-shattering Thing”: Lidia Yuknavitch on Resisting the Hero Narrative and the Body as a Generator of Stories. By Jane Ratcliffe Commentary “I’m going to say a blasphemous thing, which is we are so fucking done with the hero’s journey. It has been to our peril.”
When Time Costs Too Much By Carolyn Wells Highlight If you are the family breadwinner, how do you calculate the value of time with your children?
8 Longreads by Will Storr on the Science of Storytelling By Catherine Cusick Reading List Eight must-read stories that investigate science, belief, and the human impulse to tell stories.
Miami: A Beginning By Jessica Lynne Feature Jessica Lynne remembers a long distance love affair that began in Miami and the Billie Holiday song that kept her company through the relationship’s transitions.
Welcome to Hive By Danielle Jackson Feature Hive is a new Longreads series about women and the music that has influenced them.
“What Do I Know To Be True?”: Emma Copley Eisenberg on Truth in Nonfiction, Writing Trauma, and The Dead Girl Newsroom By Jacqueline Alnes Feature “We were interested in dead girls, but so interested in them that we were trying to do the opposite of what had been done before.”
Tar Bubbles By Melissa Matthewson Feature Melissa Matthewson remembers the flights of fancy that kept her company as a young girl, and bears witness to her daughter’s.
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.
Beautiful Women, Ugly Scenes: On Novelist Nettie Jones and the Madness of ‘Fish Tales’ By Michael Gonzales Feature Edited by Toni Morrison, the 1983 novel ‘Fish Tales’ by Nettie Jones was supposed to set the literary world on fire. It didn’t.
The Reality of Being Sick and Alone By Carolyn Wells Highlight Diagnosed with breast cancer, Anne Boyer discusses the treatment that is poisoning her body.
