Nine stories that explain the fraught history of the holiday, and the need for celebration.Â
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Posted inNonfiction
The Case for Letting Malibu Burn
Many of California’s native ecosystems evolved to burn. Modern fire suppression creates fuels that lead to catastrophic fires. So why do people insist on rebuilding in the firebelt?
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Highlight, Story
In Absentia
A meditation on the nature of grief, at a time when the whole world seems to be grieving.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
The Masterless People: Pirates, Maroons, and the Struggle to Live Free
In the “bizarre and horrifying world” of the early modern Caribbean, maroons and pirates both prized their freedom above all else. And sometimes they worked together to safeguard it.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Nina Simone in Liberia
Katherina Grace Thomas weaves together a gripping account of the years Nina Simone found freedom from America’s racial strife in lush, pre-Civil War Liberia.
Posted inBooks, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Story
A Green New Jail
What does environmental justice look like in a landscape overrun by prisons? Where the incarcerated suffer from unusually polluted surroundings, and prisons are a toxin in their own right?
Posted inBusiness, Business & Tech, Current Events, Nonfiction, Story
The Prosperity Plea
Paying attention to the Poor People’s Campaign.
Posted inCulture, Nonfiction, Story
Land Not Theirs
Reckoning with a religious upbringing means confronting religion’s role in oppressing women and people of color.
Posted inBooks, Current Events, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
To Tell the Story, These Journalists Became Part of the Story
In two recent books about immigrant families seeking asylum in the U.S., the authors’ attempts to help become part of their subjects’ stories.
Posted inNonfiction, Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Katherina Grace Thomas, James Lasdun, Kyle Chayka, Tay Wiles, and Buzz Bissinger.
