After years of work, activists got the state of California to ban the dangerous pesticide chlorpyrifos, which drifts widely through the state’s Central Valley. These activists are now taking aim at other chemicals and hope their grassroots coalition shows others how to battle the farmers and policy makers who act like human health is just […]
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Posted inEditor's Pick
Indigenous Educators Fight for an Accurate History of California
For too long, California’s public school history curriculum has reduced Indigenous people to peaceful workers at the Spanish missions, and omitted their enslavement and suffering. Can California Assembly Bill 738 correct that?
Posted inCulture, education, History, Nonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes
Why Can’t California Public Schools Quit Teaching a Eurocentric Version of State History?
Despite decades of effort, activists are still trying to get California public schools to teach an accurate history of the state’s indigenous people and the cruelties of European settlement.
Posted inEditor's Pick
It Took Deputies 24 Hours to Find a Body in This California Jail. Its Problems Aren’t Fixed
California has set aside $2.1 billion in funding for construction projects to upgrade old jails, some of which have been branded as having “deplorable” conditions. But a majority of the projects have been delayed due to bureaucratic roadblocks and critical errors in planning. Meanwhile design flaws in the aging facilities have been contributing to deaths […]
Posted inNonfiction
The Cult That Promises to Cure Addiction
For 50 years, Enthusiastic Sobriety programs have offered to help teenagers kick drugs and alcohol. But former followers say ES doesn’t save lives—it destroys them.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Story
Mama Looks for Melanin
Harmony Holiday remembers her mother’s years of trauma-bonding in search of new love, after the death of her mercurial yet brilliant father.
Posted inNonfiction
Longreads Best of 2020: Essays
A small sampling of standout essays published this year.
Posted inBlog Post, Longreads News, Quote Posts
With Your Support, We Can Continue to Be a Space for First-Person Storytelling
Personal narratives are powerful. Help us support writers and artists who have these stories to tell.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees
Sequoias can live for thousands of years, but a single bristlecone in California’s White Mountains can live indefinitely. This gnarled tree species will outlive humanity.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
Searching for the Mountaintop in Upstate New York
A family confronts its racial past along the Appalachian Trail.
