Learning from Perimenopause and a Kpop Idol
Struggling with fluctuating hormones, Wendy Gan is inspired by the musician Mino to stop muting herself and return to writing.
A Woman’s Work: Till Death Do Us Part
In the fifth installment of her illustrated essay series, New Yorker cartoonist Carolita Johnson considers the emotional and physical labor required of women as their loved ones die.
Book of Lamentations
In a collaboration between Longreads and Columbia University Journalism School’s The Delacorte Review, Michael Shapiro returns to Israel after 35 years to visit a grave and find a country.
Frenzied Woman
Cinelle Barnes considers how the chaos and discipline of dance kept the disparate parts of her being stitched together.
My Year on a Shrinking Island
Former baker Michael Mount explores the interplay of community, cookie dough and changing terrain on Martha’s Vineyard
I’m 72. So What?
Catherine Texier pushes back against society’s dated ideas about older women, claiming her place among those who are determined to remain vibrant and relevant in the last decades of their lives.
You Talk Real Good
Alison Stine confronts the ways in which being hard of hearing has made her job search more difficult.
Breaking the Family Silence on Alcoholism
Alicia Lutes contemplates her family’s history of addiction, her mother’s failing liver, and the effect it’s all had on her generation.
Old Dudes on Skateboards
The death of his life-long skateboarding friend prompts Aaron Gilbreath to get back on his board — at 44, with his toddler daughter in tow.
Happiness is Fleeting
Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell recalls learning about life’s cycles of hope and disappointment from The Peanuts.