Longreads Best of 2014: Essay Writing

This year’s best essays as chosen by Meaghan O’Connell, Rachael Maddux, and Belle Boggs.

Source: Longreads
Published: Dec 19, 2014

Meet the Dogged Researchers Who Try to Unmask Haters Online

Adrian Chen talks to journalists and researchers in Sweden who are trying to unmask anonymous commenters who leave hateful messages online. Questions about privacy arise.

Published: Dec 18, 2014
Length: 16 minutes (4,212 words)

The True Story That Inspired the Movie ‘Foxcatcher’

The bloody true story of John E. Du Pont, his Foxcatcher Farms estate, and the Olympic gold medal winning Schultz brothers.

Author: J.F. Pirro
Source: Mainline Today
Published: Feb 1, 2007
Length: 16 minutes (4,000 words)

Inside the Universal Life Church, the Internet’s One True Religion

Most people know the Universal Life Church as a quick and easy place to get ordained without leaving your couch. But the history of the church, which emerged in the late ’60s, is far more complicated—and fascinating.

Source: The Kernel
Published: Dec 14, 2014
Length: 13 minutes (3,488 words)

Longreads Best of 2014: Science Stories

We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in specific categories. Here, the best in science writing.

Source: Longreads
Published: Dec 18, 2014

The Rise of Extreme Daycare

More Americans are working late-night and early-morning hours, creating a demand for a new breed of childcare centers that can meet the off-hours demand.

Published: Dec 12, 2014
Length: 11 minutes (2,827 words)

Emptying the Tower of David

Venezuela’s twenty-eight story Tower of David is a vertical slum so notorious that the show Homeland once used it as a plot line. Boris Munoz reflects on the future of Venezuela as seen through its infamous, emptying skyscraper.

Source: Vocativ
Published: Dec 10, 2014
Length: 16 minutes (4,020 words)

Giving Stephen Hawking a Voice

When Stephen Hawking lost his voice, he sought a different scientific breakthrough.

Source: Wired UK
Published: Dec 2, 2014
Length: 11 minutes (2,777 words)

Longreads Best of 2014: Crime Reporting

We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in specific categories. Here, the best in crime reporting.

Source: Longreads
Published: Dec 17, 2014

The Samantha Power Doctrine

Can UN Ambassador Samantha Power reconcile her ardent human-rights interventionism with the pragmatism necessary to guide American policy?

Author: Evan Osnos
Source: New Yorker
Published: Dec 14, 2014
Length: 51 minutes (12,752 words)