The Hospital Where By Longreads Feature When accompanying his father to the emergency room, a writer reflects on how he developed his talent — and why that’s a story he can never tell his father.
The Strongest Woman in the Room By Kitty Sheehan Feature A daughter recounts her family’s worst day, through her mother’s eyes.
Dawn of Dianetics: L. Ron Hubbard, John W. Campbell, and the Origins of Scientology By nevalalee Feature Read an excerpt adapted from Alec Nevala-Lee’s book, Astounding.
Marriage Proposal Follies By Amy Deneson Feature After she proposes to her girlfriend, Amy Deneson rethinks what it means to wed.
The Last Puerto Rican Social Club in Brooklyn By C.J. Karlsson Feature Social clubs were once the glue that held the Puerto Rican diaspora together. Today, there’s only one left in Brooklyn.
West Across the Sea By Sam Riches Feature Tryggvi Hlinason is a sheep farmer at the center of a new generation of Icelandic basketball talent. He’s trying to do something that only one other Icelander has done before — play in the NBA.
Raised by Hip-Hop By Juan Vidal Feature In hip-hop and skateboarding, one young man finds an outlet for his aggression.
A Woman Becomes a Nightingale By Carolita Johnson Feature Carolita Johnson reviews the ugly history of rape being weaponized — and politicized — as a means of silencing women.
The Denial Diaries: On #MeToo Men With No Self-Awareness By Soraya Roberts Feature In a good story, a character suffers, changes, and grows. In real life, women suffer while men double down on their delusions of virtue.
If the Rich Really Want To ‘Do Good,’ They Should Become Class Traitors Like FDR By Will Meyer Feature “Winners Take All” is an indictment of the insular, Disneyfied world of Ted Talks, “thought leaders” and philanthropy as self-help for rich people. But does it go far enough?
Sarah Perry on ‘Melmoth,’ Monsters, and Making Her Readers Feel Responsible for Mass Atrocity By Bridey Heing Feature “It was important to me that the ‘villains’ in the book were ordinary people, because readers are ordinary people, and people who do terrible things are often ordinary people.”
‘I’ve Always Been Either Praised or Accused of Ambition’: An Interview with Barbara Kingsolver By Sarah Boon Feature Barbara Kingsolver takes a rigorous, scientific approach to her novels’ subjects — but, as a woman writer, her authority is often challenged.
Living with Dolly Parton By Jessica Wilkerson Feature Asking difficult questions often comes at a cost.
Querida Angelita By Longreads Feature The Mexican teenager who became one Mexican-American family’s maid taught a young woman that el oltro lado, the other side, is as much about class and good fortune as it is an international border.
A Place to Stay, Untouched by Death By Jane Ratcliffe Feature After her mother’s passing, Jane Ratcliffe considers the role everyday objects play in a good death.
The Power of Shutting Up and Sitting in Silence By Kathryn Smith Feature Kathryn Smith went to an Ashram, and it made her feel better about everything.
Greens By Longreads Feature “’I’m good,’ I told him. I didn’t tell him I was running eleven miles, playing two hours of ball, and eating eight hundred calories a day.”
‘As a Grown Woman, I Still Have To Continuously Learn To Say No’ By Wei Tchou Feature Memoirist Tanya Marquardt talks about consent, trauma, and investigating our memories in the age of #MeToo.
Queens of Infamy: The Reign of Catherine de’ Medici By Anne Thériault Feature When your husband and male heirs are too useless or too dead to rule, you have to take matters into your own poison-gloved hands.
Fat Girl Cries Herself to Sleep At Night: An Illustrated Essay By Natalie Lima Feature Living in a body can be hysterically complicated.
A Woman, Tree or Not By Terese Marie Mailhot Feature Terese Marie Mailhot questions the value of Native coming of age ceremonies she missed out on.
A New View of Crime in America By Longreads Feature What does incarceration do for the member of a family that views prison as a rite of passage? A New York Times reporter takes a close look at intergenerational criminality.
To Heil, or Not To Heil, When Traveling in the Third Reich By Longreads Feature One of the first decisions any tourist had to make when crossing the German border in the mid-1930s was whether or not to “Heil Hitler.”
To Tell the Story, These Journalists Became Part of the Story By Martha Pskowski Feature In two recent books about immigrant families seeking asylum in the U.S., the authors’ attempts to help become part of their subjects’ stories.
Charting the Love — and Betrayal — in Our Stars By Cherise Morris Feature Cherise Morris turns to astrology and Beyoncé lyrics to move through a difficult moment in her relationship.
Shelved: Bill Evans’ Loose Blues By Tom Maxwell Feature An album that took five months to record sat in the vault for 20 years before finally getting pressed to vinyl.
The New Feeling By Anna Moschovakis Feature When Eleanor takes a break from reading the news, her laptop goes missing. Full of self-abnegation, she asks Wallace Shawn for advice.