Recent editors’ picks

No Return

William Finnegan | The New Yorker | June 29, 2026 | 9,169 words

“Did an experienced alpinist leave his girlfriend to die at the top of a mountain?”

Silicon Valley Circuits

Hua Hsu | Places Journal | July 8, 2026 | 6,503 words

“Route 85 in California now inspires dread. Some of us remember when it was a vision of the future.”

The Extraordinary Life And Quiet Death of the World’s Largest Iceberg

Chris Heath | National Geographic | June 29, 2026 | 4,011 words

“Forty years after breaking away from Antarctica, the frozen colossus known as A23a died as it lived: drifting around the bottom of the globe, fascinating ardent observers, and offering scientists critical new insights about our living ocean.”

Dopamine TV

Lavender Au | The Dial | June 30, 2026 | 2,530 words

“How China’s short dramas are redefining entertainment.”

The Florida Alligator Dragnet

Luke Winkie | Slate | June 30, 2026 | 8,019 words

“When an alligator kills someone in America, it can make international headlines. What happens to the thousands of gators that people deem ‘nuisances’ does not.”

The True Story of Laura Ingalls Is Wilder than Little House on the Prairie

Rosemary Counter | Vanity Fair | July 6, 2026 | 2,114 words

“Netflix’s new adaptation of the beloved book series will probably leave out some of the most fascinating details from the author’s life—from Pa Ingalls’s ineptitude to the serial killers that stalked Kansas during her childhood.”

The Back Meets the Nose

Emily Nemens | The Common | April 24, 2026 | 8,053 words

“It felt like a stabbing. It felt like a burning. It felt like a dull ache, then a sharp one, then it radiated all the way down.”

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

Showcasing stories from Sloane Crosley; Zadie Smith; Mark Johnson and Saumya Khandelwal; Todd Kliman; and Sheila Liming.

Recent editors’ picks

Why Is Florida Executing So Many Prisoners?

Pamela Colloff | The New York Times Magazine | June 30, 2026 | 5,354 words

“In most of the country, executions are a thing of the past. But one state has been carrying them out at a record pace.”

What Science Knows About Grief

Amanda Petrusich | The New Yorker | June 22, 2026 | 6,128 words

“After my husband’s death, I had never been more pliable, tender, open, or raw. It was then that I tried E.M.D.R. therapy.”

Semiquincentennial Blues

Mychal Denzel Smith | n+1 | July 3, 2026 | 3,802 words

“I am yearning to reject something that is not even being sold to me.”

America’s Greatest Hot Dog

Alan Siegel | The Ringer | July 2, 2026 | 2,152 words

“The price and quality of the $1.50 Costco frank haven’t budged in 40 years. It’s the last—and best—deal in the country.”

Paradise Revisited

Helen Lewis | The Atlantic | June 22, 2026 | 6,578 words

“What Darwin saw in the Galápagos.”

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