Save the date! On June 24, Longreads will be hosting a free night of storytelling at the Booksmith in San Francisco, featuring: Clara Jeffery (Mother Jones) Mat Honan (BuzzFeed) Susie Cagle (journalist & illustrator) Elizabeth Lopatto (The Verge) Emily Thelin (writer, Food & Wine) Dan Stone (Radio Silence) * * * Wednesday, June 24, 7:30 p.m. The Booksmith […]
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The Third Life of Richard Miles
Richard Miles spent 15 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. The state of Texas compensated Miles for his wrongful conviction, but life after vindication has come with its own set of challenges.
How ‘Cops’ Became the Most Polarizing Reality TV Show in America
What one of TV’s longest-running reality shows says about race and our relationship with the police.
How ‘Cops’ Became the Most Polarizing Reality TV Show in America
What one of TV’s longest-running reality shows says about race and our relationship with the police.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Our favorite stories of the week, featuring, the Center for Public Integrity, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, The Boston Globe, and MinnPost.
The Word Is ‘Nemesis’: The Fight to Integrate the National Spelling Bee
For talented black spellers in the 1960s, the segregated local spelling bee was the beginning and the end of the long road to Washington, D.C.
How Does a Magazine Go About Calculating the Financial Cost of Gun Violence?
To begin to get a grasp on the economic toll, Mother Jones turned to Ted Miller at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, an independent nonprofit that studies public health, education, and safety issues. Miller has been one of the few researchers to delve deeply into guns, going back to the late 1980s when he began analyzing societal […]
Longreads Best of 2016: Crime Reporting
We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here, the best in crime reporting.
In Praise of Public Pitching
I’ve always been fascinated by how narrative journalism gets commissioned, reported, and published–but the most perplexing part of the entire system is the continued power imbalance between writers and publishers. This imbalance persists in spite of the internet “democratizing” publishing. More digital publishers are embracing feature writing, but the process behind the scenes feels stuck in the past–a time-consuming marathon of […]
American Gun Culture Is Literally Killing Us: A Reading List
It is impossible to talk about guns without talk about race, class, and gender. This list is only the beginning.

