When it Takes Being Thrown to Learn How to Land By Joanne Solomon Feature An aerialist flies off her bike on the Manhattan Bridge, altering the course of her journey.
Father of Migrants By Alice Driver Feature “When it comes to the human body, everything can be trafficked. Migrants are a product in a system that breaks them down into lucrative parts, often until there is nothing left.”
Faster Than the Speed of Sound: An Interview with Holly Maniatty By Cody Delistraty Feature American Sign Language interpreter Holly Maniatty uses every molecule in her body and the beautiful nuances of ASL to interpret musical performances for Deaf concert patrons.
After Marriage Equality, to Party, or to Protest? By Spenser Mestel Feature Spenser Mestel recalls the emotionally complicated day, two years ago, when the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage.
Two-And-a-Half Minutes to Midnight: Our Fear of Nukes and How We Got Here By Elizabeth King Feature Our fear of nuclear conflict has more to do with Iron Man and Godzilla than it does Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.
A Portrait of the Artist as an Undocumented Immigrant By Longreads Feature A Mexican writer recalls undocumented life at a restaurant in New York and as a nanny in Connecticut.
My Father’s Adventure Was My Terror By Diana Whitney Feature With the decision to take his 13-year-old daughter on a dangerous drive to Peshawar, Diana Whitney’s charismatic father became a regular fallible human in her eyes.
The Tears of Denis Johnson By Longreads Feature The writer showed his students and friends how to remain an artist, even when one becomes a kind of cult figure.
My Father’s Weakness for Beer Never Lessened His Strengths By Pauline Campos Feature Pauline Campos recalls her time with her late father, a functional alcoholic she never judged, and still reveres.
David Brown’s Quiet Resilience By David Gambacorta Feature The former Dallas police chief is familiar with loss: Violence took his son, younger brother, and former partner. His response to the killing of five officers last July was inspiring. He’s not done giving back.
A Sociology of the Smartphone By Longreads Feature Smartphones have altered the texture of everyday life, digesting many longstanding spaces and rituals, and transforming others beyond recognition.
Pulse Nightclub Was My Home By Edgar Gomez Feature On the anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, Edgar Gomez reflects on what a safe haven the club was for him and others — maybe even shooter Omar Mateen.
Twinless in Twinsburg By Anya Groner Feature Anya Groner examines her experience of being an identical twin through the lens of an annual Twins Day festival she attended without her sister.
Curing My Flight Anxiety, One Book Tour at a Time By Jami Attenberg Feature Novelist Jami Attenberg discovered a surprise antidote to the anxiety that plagued her each time she had to get on a plane to promote a book.
A Heart That Watches and Receives By Longreads Feature “Please don’t give up on the truth.” A commencement address by author and historian Hampton Sides.
A Witness to Other People’s Lives, Not Living My Own By Jennifer Romolini Feature Unhappiness Cloak: An excerpt from “Weird in a World That’s Not,” by Jennifer Romolini.
White Men By Longreads Feature What do we get from our parents? An inheritance always comes with a tax.
The Word Is ‘Nemesis’: The Fight to Integrate the National Spelling Bee By cgreend Feature For talented black spellers in the 1960s, the segregated local spelling bee was the beginning and the end of the long road to Washington, D.C.
Pee and Fury: Testing the Limits of Bladder Control By Nina Sharma Feature Scary late-night noises in a hotel hallway force Nina Sharma to question her ability to sleep through fear — and the frequent, raging urge to relieve herself.
El Padre de Los Migrantes By Alice Driver Feature “Cuando se trata del cuerpo humano todo puede ser objeto de tráfico. Los migrantes son un producto en un sistema que los separa en partes lucrativas, hasta que muchas veces no queda nada.”
From a Hawk to a Dove By Ray Cocks Feature Vietnam Veteran Ray Cocks, who’d eagerly enlisted in 1967, was forever changed by the realities of war.
Learning to Swim in a Sea of Uncertainty By Katie Prout Feature Katie Prout was all set to teach her homeward-bound Navy Officer brother everything she learned in swim class. Then the Trump administration issued new orders.
Chasing the Harvest: ‘It Used to Be Only Men That Did This Job’ By Gabriel Thompson Feature In this oral history, a produce truck driver and former lettuce worker recounts the sexual harassment she faced while working in the fields of Salinas Valley, California.
Getting Out the Message To Save Himself By Aaron Gilbreath Feature In Don Waters’ short story “Full of Days,” a grieving Las Vegas man uses an anti-abortion billboard to justify his own pained existence.
The Teenage Dreamland of ‘Twin Peaks’ By A. N. Devers Feature Discovering the show when she was a teenager in 1990 helped A.N. Devers navigate the grief of losing her grandparents—and her girlhood.
At War With the Rat Army By Longreads Feature A refugee from Nazi Germany has trouble adjusting to life in America, so she decamps to the countryside, where she discovers that the war follows you in unexpected ways.
American Dolchstoss By Shawn Hamilton Feature The German “stab-in-the-back” myth springs back to life in America, this time through scapegoating over lost jobs.
Between Mom and Stepmom By Sarah Menkedick Feature Sarah Menkedick reflects on the very different—and complementary—ways in which her mother and her stepmother have nurtured her.
Chasing the Harvest: ‘If You Want to Die, Stay at the Ranch’ By Gabriel Thompson Feature In this oral history, a former sheepherder describes the loneliness and medical hardship he experienced while tending sheep in California’s Central Valley.