Can an Outsider Ever Truly Become Amish?

One of the rarest religious experiences you can have in America is to join the Plain.

Source: Atlas Obscura
Published: Mar 29, 2016
Length: 28 minutes (7,014 words)

How to Make a Bot That Isn’t Racist

In the wake of Microsoft’s disastrous chatbot, Motherboard‘s Jeong discusses ethical botmaking with veterans of the trade.

Source: Motherboard
Published: Mar 25, 2016
Length: 7 minutes (1,875 words)

The Woman Who Was Trans Before Her Time

Dianna Boileau was one of the first Canadians to have gender-confirming surgery, in 1970.

Source: Toronto Star
Published: Mar 27, 2016
Length: 15 minutes (3,872 words)

Lost in Trumplandia

“America has always offered to drink anything for five dollars, no matter how disgusting.” Patricia Lockwood, on the ground at a Trump rally, attempting to understand what’s happening in the United States.

Published: Mar 28, 2016
Length: 34 minutes (8,650 words)

Jim Harrison, Free-Spirited Writer of ‘Legends of the Fall,’ Dies at 78

An obituary for writer Jim Harrison, whose “lust for life—and sometimes just plain lust—roared into print in a vast, celebrated body of fiction, poetry and essays that with ardent abandon explored the natural world, the life of the mind and the pleasures of the flesh.”

Published: Mar 27, 2016
Length: 9 minutes (2,460 words)

Eight Stories About #HB2 and Its Ramifications on the Transgender Community

“I hope the following eight stories will be of use to you, to educate my cisgender readers and provide support and solidarity to my transgender siblings.”

Source: Longreads
Published: Mar 27, 2016

The Mystery of James Franco: Inside His Manic Days and Sleepless Nights

“The real question when it comes to Franco ‘isn’t whether or not he’s legit. He’s legit. It’s whether or not he’s insane.'”

Source: Rolling Stone
Published: Mar 23, 2016
Length: 18 minutes (4,729 words)

Imaginary Spaces

A profile of Es Devlin, a highly in-demand stage designer who has worked with rock stars, playwrights, and fashion designers.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Mar 21, 2016
Length: 27 minutes (6,804 words)

How Scandinavian Design Took Over the World

Hucal traces the rise of Scandinavian design, and its current place in the zeitgeist.

Source: curbed.com
Published: Mar 23, 2016
Length: 11 minutes (2,987 words)

Liar: A Memoir

Our latest Longreads Exclusive is an excerpt from Rob Roberge’s new memoir, Liar. After Roberge learns that he’s likely to have developed a progressive memory-eroding disease from years of hard living and frequent concussions, he’s terrified at the prospect of losing “every bad and beautiful moment” of his life. So he grasps for snatches of time, desperately documenting each tender, lacerating fragment.

Source: Longreads
Published: Mar 24, 2016
Length: 22 minutes (5,688 words)