“Rich Fierro fought in America’s war on terror. Then terror found him at home.”
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The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week we have stories from Amelia Tait, Dan Zak, Daniel Kolitz, Geoffrey Mak, Danielle Carr, Leon Dische Becker, Amber A’Lee Frost, P.E. Moskowitz, Joshua Tempelhof, Elenda Comay del Junco, Kendall Waldman, Devon Fredericksen, and J.D. Daniels.
And the Nominees Are…
Hi there, Last week, the American Society of Magazine Editors announced the finalists for this year’s National Magazine Awards. At Longreads, the first thing we noticed was that our sister publication, The Atavist, was a finalist in the Profile category for the story “Coming to America.” The second thing we noticed was how many of […]
A Butcher Shop Visit and Our Top 5
“More tellingly still, on the block in front of me are half a dozen dead pheasants. This is the butchery department, deep in the bowels of Waltham Forest College in North East London, UK, where I am the only female student.” For those who celebrate, Easter weekend can mean a big ol’ roast dinner. Some […]
The Lives of Nuns, Part 2: A Reading List
In the two years since I compiled the first installation of “The Lives of Nuns,” Autostraddle wrote about queer nuns in history, Racked shadowed (fake) nuns growing marijuana, and The Huffington Post reported on a nun’s murder and the students who want the truth. Those stories and more are included below. Seclude yourself and read.
Behind the Longreads: Dan Zak on the Nun and the Nukes
We asked Washington Post reporter Dan Zak how he stumbled upon “The Prophets of Oak Ridge.” Here’s his account.
Behind the Longreads: Dan Zak on the Nun and the Nukes
We asked Washington Post reporter Dan Zak how he stumbled upon “The Prophets of Oak Ridge.” Here’s his account: “This story happened because a generous colleague, Dana Priest, pitched it downstairs to my area of the newsroom. She had finished a series on the country’s aging nuclear arsenal and a shorter news story on security lapses […]
Behind the Longreads: Dan Zak on the Nun and the Nukes
We asked Washington Post reporter Dan Zak how he stumbled upon “The Prophets of Oak Ridge.” Here’s his account: “This story happened because a generous colleague, Dana Priest, pitched it downstairs to my area of the newsroom. She had finished a series on the country’s aging nuclear arsenal and a shorter news story on security lapses […]
Longreads Guest Pick: Baxter Holmes on 'The Prophets of Oak Ridge'
Baxter covers the Celtics for The Boston Globe, which he joined in 2013 after spending three and a half years as a sports reporter at the Los Angeles Times. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2009. He’s a proud Oklahoman from a no-stoplight town where humans are outnumbered by cow and buffalo: “A […]


