“To a reading list on these mind-bending entities at a planetary tipping point, welcome. What you see here are only some fruiting bodies, the rest lies underneath.” I first learned about the parasitic fungus that takes over a bug’s body and commandeers its brain back in 2023, when I picked Zhengyang Wang’s “The Last of […]
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The Memory Maker
OpenAI’s Sora allowed you to deepfake yourself. Users started to remember things that never happened.
Can Coastal California Adapt to Climate Change?
Rising sea levels and aggressive erosion could prove to be the greatest crisis modern Californians will ever face.
‘What Kind of Man Would Abandon His Family By Pretending To Be Dead?’
A father’s disappearance, dark family secrets, and the hunt for Bigfoot.
Around The Pit
Circling billions of gallons of toxic water at America’s largest Superfund site.
How to Fuel a Hike, What’s in a Name, and the Week’s Top 5
“What could it mean to give yourself the food you need to keep going? No punishing, no guilt, no withholding. Just nourishment.” Well hello, August! C’mon in and make yourself at home. This week, in addition to five stories chosen by the editors for our Top 5, we wanted to share two recent pieces with […]
A near-death experience and our Top 5 stories of the week
“My boating experience was minimal and that section of river was not for beginners, but I had scraped by enough times that my risk assessment was dangerously off-kilter. It was a really, really bad combination.” Congratulations—we made it to the weekend! We’ve got some unforgettable stories for you this week. First, Maggie Slepian recounts her […]
Best of 2022: Features
As part of Best of Longreads, our annual labor of love, we pored over all the stories we’ve picked in 2022 to create these year-end lists. The following features all embody the strong voice and excellent writing that made us fall in love with narrative journalism. Sweeping, hard-hitting, and emotional, each immerses us in a […]
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Gabriel Thompson, Tim Murphy, Deborah Netburn, Tove Danovich, and Sirin Kale.


