“The dream that new technologies might radically disrupt education is much older than Udacity, or even the Internet itself. As rail networks made the speedy delivery of letters a reality for many Americans in the late 19th century, correspondence classes started popping up in the United States. The widespread proliferation of home radio sets in […]
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The writer accompanies a neuroscientist from Harvard on a trip to a Romanian orphanage. The Bucharest Early Intervention Project—a study of the effects of early institutionalization on brain and behavior development—has become well-respected on the scientific community, but it also raised questions about the ethics of scientific research: “Two days before our visit to the […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Walter Willett’s Food Fight
Harvard professor Walter Willett is one of the most influential nutritionists in the world whose studies tracking hundred of thousands of health professionals have resulted in data shaping what we eat and how it affects our health: “He’s tasting an almond-and-grape gazpacho when someone brings over a woman named Cindy Goody and, by way of […]
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List, Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Below, our favorite stories of the week. Kindle and Readmill users, you can also get them as a Readlist. Sign up to receive this list free every Friday in your inbox. 1. This Old Man Roger Angell | The New Yorker | February 17, 2014 | 20 minutes (5,062 words) On life as a nonagenarian: […]
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Pardis Sabeti, the Rollerblading Rock Star Scientist of Harvard
On trailblazing geneticist Pardis Sabeti, who balances being in a rock band with her work in computational genomics: “There’d be plenty of people eager to talk to Sabeti before long. That October, she was the lead author on a paper published in Nature that laid out her discovery’s ‘profound implications for the study of human […]
Posted inMember Pick, Nonfiction, Story
Alexander Woollcott and Harpo Marx: A Love Story
“Our friendship was a lifelong game of ‘Who Am I?’ It was frustrating, exasperating, and sometimes downright silly, but it was a good, rewarding game.”
Posted inMember Pick, Nonfiction, Story
The Time Jason Zengerle and a Gorilla Stalked Michael Moore for Might Magazine
Jason Zengerle | Might magazine | 1997 | 19 minutes (4,685 words) Introduction Thanks to our Longreads Members’ support, we tracked down a vintage story from Dave Eggers’s Might Magazine. It’s from Jason Zengerle, a correspondent for GQ and contributing editor for New York magazine who’s been featured on Longreads often in the past.
Posted inBooks, Member Pick, Nonfiction, Story
The Making of McKinsey: A Brief History of Management Consulting in America
Duff McDonald | The Firm, Simon & Schuster | 2013 | 12 minutes (3,000 words) The American Century In 1941 Time Inc. publisher Henry Luce coined the term “American Century” in a Life magazine editorial. He was describing the country’s global economic and political dominance leading up to World War II. But Luce was also correct in the […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Let’s Eliminate Sports Welfare
Cities are slashing school budgets to pay for professional sports stadiums, and the NFL is still a nonprofit. An argument for cutting off all public funding for professional sports across the U.S., which could save taxpayers billions: “Consider stadium subsidies. When Kubla Khan built his stately pleasure dome above a sunless sea, he did not […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Longreads Member Exclusive: ‘Cormac McCarthy’s Apocalypse’
This week, we’re excited to feature a Longreads Exclusive from David Kushner (@DavidKushner), a contributing editor to Rolling Stone whose work has also appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, GQ and Wired. He’s been featured many times on Longreads, and he’s the author of Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto. “Cormac McCarthy’s Apocalypse” is Kushner’s 2007 […]
