Once upon a time, I wanted to be a doctor. Never mind my terrible grades in all things science. Never mind that I decided this in my second year of college, after deciding that the music school that I’d wanted for years wasn’t for me. It was 2006. It was the age of Dr. Gregory […]
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Loving Molly, and Mourning Her: A Husband’s Extraordinary Essay
Blake Butler writes movingly about his late wife, poet Molly Brodak.
Things That Able Me
Christy Tending | Longreads | February 2, 2023 | 14 minutes (3,768 words) There are things that able me. A chair. One person speaking to me at a time. Shoes that are not cute, but spare me nerve pain. A hot bath with epsom salts: so hot it would scald most, but my skin is like […]
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Jeremy Redmon, Alex Perry, Jeremy D. Larson, Kevin Nguyen, and Egill Bjarnason.
Her Greatest Hits
“Maybe it’s only when you don’t know what you are listening for that you find what you were waiting all along to discover.”
The Lessons of Lore
Ghost stories reveal our collective anxieties amid times of change.
Becoming a Parent During the Pandemic Was the Hardest Thing I’ve Ever Done
“I spoke with a number of mental-health experts, many of whom told me that rates of postpartum depression have gone up significantly since the pandemic began. “It’s gotten really, really bad,” Juli Fraga, a psychologist in San Francisco, told me. “I hear about the isolation, and how it feels like Groundhog Day; the heartache of […]
The Snowy Countries Losing Their Identity
“Hartig’s research has linked unusually cool summer temperatures in Sweden to increased antidepressant use – an observation he says he would expect to apply to warmer winter temperatures too, which he suggests may exacerbate the already high incidence of depression during the winter. “We are really losing the qualities of the seasons that we value […]
Momo’s Deadline
Linda Button on her toughest writing assignment yet: her business partner’s epitaph.
The Cruise Ship Suicides
Cruise crew members experienced a “more extreme version of the household lockdowns that have sent people tumbling into depression.”

