“What I am qualified to say—what I am saying: what links the evils of the modern Olympics to literary criticism, to literary prizes and to A-to-F classroom grades—is that I’m tired of losing and tired of winning, and that we all lose when we focus so often on prizes, grades, and final scores.”
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Posted inEditor's Pick
Gun Person
“The walls in our classrooms are so thin. This training has not trained us. The lesson I take away is that I’m not ready.”
Posted inReading List
Seeing is Believing: A Reading List on Making Meaning from Data
Eight stories on the power and beauty of visual communication.
Posted inFeature
A Year in Reading: When We Are Redefined
From bull rides to military parades, the world transforms us in surprising ways. The best stories get close enough to document our transformation.
Posted inFeature
The Genocide the World Ignored
Ayder Comprehensive Medical Hospital was the second largest in Ethiopia and the jewel of the Tigrayan health system—and for two horrific years, it became a war zone.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Last of the Bougainvillea Years
“A poet from Tripoli was displaced in Dubai for a decade, but suddenly it felt like home as another move, this time across the globe, was imminent.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Molly’s Last Ride
“Twelve-year-old Molly Steinsapir crashed onto the pavement from a Rad Power e-bike and never woke up. With a poorly regulated e-bike industry, who is responsible when a child dies?”
Posted inReading List
‘Actually Really Sacred’: A George Saunders Reading List
Nine essays and interviews from literature’s favorite laureate of compassion.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Violent Delights
“The serial killer media industrial complex rages on, but what has it taught us? Very little about the crimes in question, and much more about ourselves.”
Posted inTop 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
In this edition: subsea storytelling, a preservation paradox, achieving serpentine symbiosis, an investigation into infinity, and a marijuana mystery.
