Recent editors’ picks

When Your Digital Life Vanishes

Julian Lucas | The New Yorker | April 20, 2026 | 5,536 words

“A broken phone or corrupted drive can mean the loss of work, evidence, art, or the last traces of the dead. But sometimes data-recovery experts can summon lost files from the void.”

The Disappearance of the Public Bench

Gabrielle Bruney | Places Journal | April 21, 2026 | 7,497 words

“Benches are microcosms of an expansive debate about who belongs in urban public spaces. When they are removed or made uninviting, we lose more than just a place to rest.”

The Hardy Men

Daniel Lefferts | The New York Review of Books | April 16, 2026 | 3,368 words

“Why is a right-wing press reissuing century-old adolescent mystery novels?”

How to Begin

Jane O’Sullivan | The Sydney Review of Books | April 2, 2026 | 3,885 words

“Jane O’Sullivan on first lines in fiction.”

The Great Ozempic Experiment

Julia Belluz | The New York Times | April 15, 2026 | 4,101 words

“It’s a new era of D.I.Y. medicine. Now the health establishment needs to catch up.”

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

This week we are celebrating writing from Paul Collins, Daniel Lefferts, Mitch Therieau, Joseph Bullington, and Hanif Abdurraqib.

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

This week collects standout work from David Moudy-Miller, Caitlin Wash Miller, Kevin T. Baker, Alex Vadukul, and Jordan Ritter Conn.

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

Highlighting excellent stories by Charles Bethea, Mahmoud Mushtaha, Geoffrey Gray, Luke Ottenhof, and Matthew Shaer.

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

Showcasing stories from Megan O’Grady, Alexander Sammon, Alaina Demopoulos, Blair Braverman, and Jack Crosbie.

Recent editors’ picks

How to Crash

Adam Boggon | Pangyrus | April 18, 2026 | 2,480 words

“I thought of the pinkish, folded gel which in its mysteries congeal all my memories and dreams, and how it had been thrust from a moving vehicle onto an English road with nothing to protect it but the back of my skull.”

The Warehouse, in Plain Sight

Charmaine Chua | Places Journal | April 14, 2026 | 4,791 words

“That concrete box off the freeway wasn’t designed for storage so much as capture—of markets, workers, and, now, people detained by immigration agents. It’s a disappearing machine. We need to see it clearly.”

Our Longing for Inconvenience

Hanif Abdurraqib | The New Yorker | April 17, 2026 | 2,879 words

“The modern world has made us ill-equipped for the nuisances of past technologies, even as it has fuelled nostalgia for things that might transport us back to calmer times.”

She Knows a Place

Sophie Abramowitz | The New York Review of Books | April 16, 2026| 4,213 words

“For seven decades, the gospel singer Mavis Staples has troubled the opposition between chorus and soloist, background and lead.”

Redshift

Elena Saavedra Buckley | Harper’s Magazine | April 15, 2026 | 8,874 words

“Rehearsing for humanity’s future on Mars.”

Leaving America

Lindsey Tramuta | The Bitter Southerner | March 14, 2026 | 3,900 words

“Americans have always moved away. These days, expat Lindsey Tramuta writes, record numbers are leaving or planning to leave in search of health care, civil rights, freedoms, even safety. Does exiting the United States mean you’ve given up? Not necessarily.”

The Hardest Part Of History To Tell Is How It Felt

Craig Fehrman | Defector | April 15, 2026 | 2,279 words

“Historians and nonfiction authors often glide over lived experience. They prefer actions, citations, details, dates. But I had just gone through something primal—something beyond my control and beyond the boundaries of modern life.”

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