Hunter-gatherers tended to think of pets as part of the family, and so do we. But in other time periods, intimacy with animals has been more taboo.
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The Problem of Pain
Pain is indeed inherited, but treating it as an affliction need not be handed down from generation to generation.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Our top stories of the week, as chosen by the editors at Longreads.
The Writers’ Roundtable: Fiction vs. Nonfiction
A conversation between writers Eva Holland, Benjamin Percy, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Mary H.K. Choi, and Adam Sternbergh about writing on both sides of the fiction-nonfiction divide.
Leaving Aleppo: ‘A distant star / Exhausts its light on the sleep of the dead.’
Pauls Toutonghi lovingly recalls his grandfather, Philippe Elias TĂĽtĂĽnji, a writer, poet, and translator from Aleppo, Syria. TĂĽtĂĽnji immigrated to America during World War II and never gave up his dream to achieve success as a poet in his adopted homeland.
How We Got There from Here
Anna Armstrong recalls a road trip to escape her grief-stricken home — dragging her 13-year-old brother to see R.E.M.
Percy Ross Wants to Give You Money!
He was was a self-made, blue-collar millionaire in Reagan’s America. But when Percy Ross decided to give away his fortune, he made things simple: all you had to do was ask for it.
What’s Left at the Bottom of Pandora’s Box
When writer Dale Maharidge and photographer Matt Black traveled through California, Ohio, and Maine to labor alongside the working poor, t hey found lots of things they expected — long hours, low pay, financial uncertainty — and one thing th ey didn’t: hope.
The Human Cost of the Ghost Economy
Melissa Chadburn goes undercover as a temp worker.
The Human Cost of the Ghost Economy
Melissa Chadburn goes undercover as a temp worker.

