How Refugees Die By Longreads Feature Wars and heightened border security have created a humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean.
Total Depravity: The Origins of the Drug Epidemic in Appalachia Laid Bare By Longreads Feature In an excerpt from his essay collection, Australian journalist Richard Cooke reports on the American opioid crisis through the astonished eyes of a foreigner visiting steel and coal country.
An Audience of Athletes: The Rise and Fall of Feminist Sports By Britni de la Cretaz Feature Billie Jean King once tried to find a sustainable business model for feminist sports coverage. Then women’s fitness tried to revive the swimsuit model.
Odetta Holmes’ Album One Grain of Sand By Longreads Feature The singular singer released her groundbreaking album in 1963, the same year as the March on Washington, and used her art and appearance as weapons in the Civil Rights struggle.
Becoming Family By Jennifer Berney Feature Jennifer Berney explores how queer families challenge traditional notions of heredity and paternity.
The Fraught Culture of Online Mourning By rachelvoronacote Feature Nowadays, we live online, and so we grieve here too. But there are limits to the comfort digital mourning can provide.
The Psychiatrist in My Writing Class and His ‘Gift’ of Hate By Rani Neutill Feature Rani Neutill recalls a literary workshop in which a white man critiqued her ability to write in “proper” English.
‘Give It Up For My Sister’: Beyonce, Solange, and The History of Sibling Acts in Pop By Danielle Jackson Feature Family dynasties are neither new nor newly influential in pop.
The Omen of the Wasps’ Nest By Marlene Adelstein Feature As she prepares to leave the home she shared with her ex, Marlene Adelstein finds herself fixated on the husk of a nest hanging in the yard.
Reimagining Harper Lee’s Lost True Crime Novel: An Interview with Casey Cep By Adam Morgan Feature “Somewhere along the way it became very clear to me that I was writing the book she never would.”
Falling Stars: On Taking Down Our Celebrity Icons By Soraya Roberts Feature Celebrities act as a symbol of capitalism. When we question it, we question them too.
There Is No Other Way To Say This By Melissa Batchelor Warnke Feature “Tell them on the outside,” Carolyn Forché’s Salvadoran mentor instructed her. Her memoir is her latest attempt. Its elliptical lyricism, like that of her poetry, runs circles around censorship.
On “Art Heroes” and Letting Your Idols Be Human By Alex Difrancesco Feature What one fan learned through being disappointed and comforted by Nick Cave’s The Red Hand Files.
I’m Not Queer to Make Friends By Logan Scherer Feature By Trying on the Role of Reality TV Villain, Logan Scherer Confronts His Gay Shame
Technology Is as Biased as Its Makers By Longreads Feature From exploding Ford Pintos to racist algorithms, all harmful technologies are a product of unethical design. Yet, like car companies in the ’70s, today’s tech companies would rather blame the user.
Shelved: Tupac and MC Hammer’s Promising Collaboration By Tom Maxwell Feature Sometimes the most fertile creative relationships are the most unlikely.
Glass, Pie, Candle, Gun By Sean Howe Feature Before he founded High Times, Tom Forcade was a renegade journalist willing to throw a pie—or a lawsuit—in the face of anyone restricting his constitutional freedoms.
‘Little Grandpa’ and The List By Abigail Rasminsky Feature When her grandfather died, Abigail Rasminsky learned about a part of his life she’d known nothing about.
After a Fashion By Soraya Roberts Feature Trying so hard to set trends for the future, fashion’s institutions can’t stop stumbling over the past (and the present).
High Expectations: LSD, T.C. Boyle’s Women, and Me By Christine Ro Feature “Outside Looking In” dramatizes the discovery of LSD and the cult of personality surrounding Timothy Leary. Our reviewer drops acid and thinks about how, for women, it can be safer to be a downer.
I Entered the World’s Longest, Loneliest Horse Race on a Whim, and I Won By Longreads Feature Somehow, implausibly, against all the odds, I became the youngest person and first woman ever to win the Mongol Derby. What made me so sure I was ready, when I was totally unprepared?
If You Should Find Yourself in the Dark By Debbie Weingarten Feature Debbie Weingarten considers the anxieties of mothering and being human in a volatile world.
Mothers are the Backbone of the Revolution By Alice Driver Feature Hundreds of Nicaraguan mothers seek justice for their murdered children, birthing a movement.
‘The Home Is a Place as Wild as Any in the World.’ By Alex Madison Feature Chia-Chia Lin talks about the wildness of domestic spaces and writing her novel “The Unpassing” through the early months of motherhood.
The Joy of Watching (and Rewatching) Movies So Bad They’re Good By Michael Musto Feature Michael Musto sings the praises of his favorite cinematic clunkers.
Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail By Suzanne Roberts Feature During a month hiking Muir’s “Range of Light,” three young women traversed snowy mountain passes, ran out of food, confronted a gendered wilderness, and learned to deal with each other.
Game of Crones By Laura Lippman Feature It wasn’t entirely Laura Lippman’s idea to become a mother in her 50s. But when it happened, she leaned in hard.