The Household Covid Budget By Carolyn Wells “She and her five housemates needed to find a way to live safely together. So they decided to adhere to a collective risk model of their own design.”
In Georgia, Citrus is Just Peachy By Krista Stevens “’You’re going to see Georgia citrus become the next Vidalia onion,’ Franklin says. ‘Soon they’ll be in every grocery store around.’”
Leap of Faith By Carolyn Wells “The men call up to Sofiane, telling him that he and his brother have to jump. Guelord shouts that the younger boy needs to go first. Sofiane should throw him down.”
Rush Drummer Neil Peart: Master Student By Krista Stevens Neil Peart “was brilliant enough to skip two grades, starting high school at 12. He began drum lessons, practicing for a full year without an actual kit.”
‘We Told You So’: Revisiting the Bleak, Pandemic-Filled World of 12 Monkeys, 25 Years Later By Cheri Lucas Rowlands “Gilliam does believe that the end of society may soon be upon us. The question for him is: What shape will the new one take?”
The Unseen in a Pandemic without Technology By Carolyn Wells “It’s been more than a year that we haven’t been able to see him…We’re getting old. We don’t know how much time we have left.
‘Everyone Benefits from a Frozen Arctic’ By Krista Stevens “The world should not, cannot, go back to business as usual without a clearer understanding and consciousness of how we live.”
What Happened to Cruise Ship Workers Once the Passengers Were Gone? By Cheri Lucas Rowlands At the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, cruise companies “went to great lengths to repatriate vacationers.” But for crew members, it was a different story.
‘Almost Home’: On Place, Legacy, Growing Up in Atlanta, and Symbols of White Supremacy By Cheri Lucas Rowlands An essay on growing up in the South, legacy, and a place rooted in white supremacy.
2020: One Year, Lifetime Consequences By Carolyn Wells “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.”
The Music of the Cave By Carolyn Wells “Though the team didn’t find the metal library, Armstrong put the adventure ‘up there with the moon landing.'”
Is the Cure for Cancer Locked in Shrunken Heads from the Amazon? By Seyward Darby Could shrunken heads from the Amazon hold the key to curing cancer?
‘No Single Machine Should Be Able to Control So Many People’ By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Can we survive the social web?
The Case of the Disappearing Bucatini By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Having trouble finding bucatini? You are not alone.
The Rehab of Big Sky Country By Carolyn Wells “Daily treks in silence are an effective way to get anyone to reflect on their lives and consider what’s really important.”
The Boom and Bust Cycles of Rock Springs, Wyoming By Krista Stevens “The day I turned 18, the Astro Lounge called and asked me to come strip for them. I have no idea how they knew I’d turned 18.”
How Does the Story End? By Krista Stevens “How other people live is pretty much all I think about. Curiosity is the rock upon which fiction is built.”
Quarantine Brain: How ‘the Internet Became More Internet’ in 2020 By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Nothing made sense in 2020 — unless you were on the internet.
A Bit of Mud is Good for You By Carolyn Wells “Leung says a “misalignment with nature” in building design is partly to blame for our scourge of chronic diseases and the current pandemic.”
Neighborhood Watch: The Strange Aftermath of a ‘Karen’ Encounter By Seyward Darby In a progressive New Jersey community, racial solidarity is complicated.
The Mormon Mommy Bloggers of Instagram By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Alexandra Tanner spent this weird year following Mormon mommy bloggers on Instagram.
Alzheimer’s Before Forty By Carolyn Wells “Shawn says Jo asked him to promise he would never let him go into a nursing home, that he would help him find some way to end his life on his own terms.”
The Racist Healthcare System that Failed JaMarcus Crews By Krista Stevens “Donated kidneys are a precious, limited resource, and once again, Black Americans are at a disadvantage.”
The Grizzly Attack that Created a Bear Advocate By Carolyn Wells “The bear, still on all fours, was tall enough to look Mya in the eye. He huffed and gave a short growl. Then he charged.”
‘Hue’s Hue’: Katy Kelleher’s Column on Color By Krista Stevens “Tyrian purple was a difficult color to manufacture. Thousands of snails were required to create a single ounce of dye.”
Longreads Best of 2020: Profiles By Krista Stevens Here’s a selection of profiles that resonated with us this year.
Plastic’s Broken Promise By Krista Stevens “The first one I saw was on the path outside my house: a single white plastic glove, the fingers curled inward like a sleeping animal.”
“Over a Glass of Wine and a Pint on a Quiet Friday Night” By Krista Stevens “Impending parenthood makes you reconsider the context of your own upbringing, and puts the work your parents did into a new light.”
The Dark Side of Birding By Krista Stevens “Undeniably, eBird … brings birders together and allows for rapid information sharing. It’s also created new—and sometimes contentious—etiquette and social dynamics.”
Loving Molly, and Mourning Her: A Husband’s Extraordinary Essay By Seyward Darby Blake Butler writes movingly about his late wife, poet Molly Brodak.
