Every quest holds at its heart a puzzle to solve—and that puzzle can become an obsession.
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The ‘Race Realist’ on Campus
“Why was Professor Gregory Christainsen allowed to teach Black and Latino students at Cal State East Bay that they were inherently less smart?”
Best of 2023: The Audience Awards
The 10 editor picks that stood out to our readers.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Maurice Chammah, Jeff Weiss, Rasha Elass, Danielle Tcholakian, and Lila Shapiro.
The Wonder of Walking and the Week’s Top 5
“I’ve always been intrigued by how environments influence the way we move, feel, and experience—and how our movements, in turn, change those environments.” Once a day, we suit up the dog and take a family walk to a park overlooking the Salish Sea. There’s something about watching dogs at play that fills us up. The […]
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
We’re showcasing work by Kate Wagner, Fintan O’Toole, Rowan Jacobsen, Tamara Kneese, and Susan Dominus.
‘Look After My Babies’: In Ethiopia, a Tigray Family’s Quest
War broke out in Ethiopia’s Tigray region at the worst possible time for Abraha Kinfe Gebremariam and his family: his wife was giving birth to twins amid a massacre.
How Silence Protects and Harms Us (plus the Week’s Top 5)
“We still fight with the same Vietnamese stubbornness that is in our blood. I struggle with knowing far more English than Vietnamese. As you age, I fret about the ultimate silence of losing you. Although this dynamic will never go away, there have been new rhetorical tools to soften our challenges. Phrases like ‘I’m sorry’ […]
The Fact-Check and the Fury: A Chat With the Writers and Editor Behind The Atavist’s New Issue
In this excerpt from The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, host Brendan O’Meara talks to Leigh Baldwin and Sean Williams about co-writing “Follow the Leader.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Paula Lavigne and Tom Junod, Lex Pryor, Sarah Treleaven, Zack Graham, and Laura Jedeed.


