How—and Why—Did Fruitcake Become a Slur?

A personal essay about queerness, dessert and the origins of a homophobic and gastronomic slur.

Author: Mayukh Sen
Source: Food52
Published: Dec 22, 2016
Length: 11 minutes (2,782 words)

Meltdown of the Phantom Snowflakes

“When I fight back, though, when I continue to write about injustice in the face of the bullying campaigns that are daily life for every female activist I have met, precisely when I feel strongest—that’s when I’m told I’m weak. A crybaby. Special snowflake. Whiner…

As politics turn darker, these slurs have become weaponized. Something bigger is going on.”

Source: The Baffler
Published: Jan 4, 2017
Length: 11 minutes (2,775 words)

This 3,500-Year-Old Greek Tomb Upended What We Thought We Knew About the Roots of Western Civilization

The recent discovery of the grave of an ancient soldier is challenging accepted wisdom among archaeologists, calling into question our most basic ideas about European history.

Source: Smithsonian
Published: Jan 1, 2017
Length: 20 minutes (5,091 words)

Stage Oddity: The Story of David Bowie’s Secret Final Project

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Cunningham tells the story of his unfinished musical with the late David Bowie.

Source: GQ
Published: Jan 9, 2017
Length: 13 minutes (3,487 words)

High Spirits

When a beverage writer takes a trip to Japan to learn about sochu, she gets lost and learns more about how poor a planner she is.

Source: The Awl
Published: Jan 4, 2017
Length: 15 minutes (3,934 words)

Can Molly Save a Marriage?

An excerpt from A Really Good Day, Ayelet Waldman’s memoir on experimenting with microdoses of LSD to treat a mood disorder.

Source: Lenny
Published: Jan 4, 2017
Length: 7 minutes (1,903 words)

The Young Trump

“There were three campaign managers. There was only one son-in-law.” A look at how Ivanka Trump’s husband, real estate developer Jared Kushner, became one of Donald Trump’s closest advisers — and what it means for both of them over the next four years.

Published: Jan 8, 2017
Length: 28 minutes (7,050 words)

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

Our top stories of the week, as chosen by the editors at Longreads.

Author: Editors
Source: Longreads
Published: Jan 6, 2017

Debutante In the Jungle

The story of Ruth Thomson, a Toronto debutante-turned-missionary who eschewed society life in 1965 to spend 50 years living with a remote tribe in the Amazon jungle.

Source: National Post
Published: Jan 6, 2017
Length: 7 minutes (1,923 words)

1999 Was The Last Time Everything Was Fine

A personal essay nostalgically looking back at 1999, a buoyant time for the economy and publishing–before the bursting of the dot com bubble, a stock market crash, and the plane crash that killed John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessett Kennedy, and her sister.

Source: BuzzFeed
Published: Jan 3, 2017
Length: 11 minutes (2,849 words)