Millions of people turn out to see Japan’s famous sakura blossoms. This year, Covid-19 kept the usual crowds at home, though the blossom makes a fitting metaphor for evanescence.
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That Dropped Call With Customer Service? It Was on Purpose.
“Endless wait times and excessive procedural fuss—it’s all part of a tactic called ‘sludge.'”
Chrishona Hodges’s Life Sentence
“At a crossroads when Chicago profiled him nine years ago, Jerryon Stevens is now in jail, awaiting trial on a murder charge. At home, his mother reckons with her son’s path — and tries to hold her fractured family together.”
Full House, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose
When I was 10 or so, my grandmother came to stay with us for what my parents called “a while.” Longer than a visit, shorter than getting your mail forwarded.
A New Series, An Unknown History, and the Week’s top 5
“Minstrelsy shows you one hand, convinces you of one thing—the thing you can see most vividly—while something else works behind the scenes. That something is something only those who are tapped into a specific kind of pain, a specific kind of quest for freedom that has failed before but is not worth abandoning, might understand.” […]
Best of 2024: All Our Number One Story Picks
Every story that appeared in the number one slot in our Weekly Top 5, all in one place.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Showcasing stories from Andrew Fedorov, Shayla Love, Malcolm Johnston, Erin Somers, and Chris Stanton.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
In this edition: Lost soul, copy that, missing beats, muzzled watchdogs, and a ramblin’ man.
Holding Space, Internet Community, and Our Top 5
In this edition: subsea storytelling, a preservation paradox, achieving serpentine symbiosis, an investigation into infinity, and a marijuana mystery.
Who’s Afraid of Spatchcocked Chicken?
“Squeamishness around meat is embedded into the English language — and by extension, Western attitudes towards the realities of meat.”


