The original reporting, personal essays, columns, and collaborations that were our most-read stories of the year.
Search results
Posted inNonfiction
The Sorrowful Mysteries, or Reasons I’m No Longer Catholic
Kathleen McKitty Harris recalls the series of events which led to her departure from the Church.
Posted inCrime, Nonfiction, Quotes
In Service of the Slender Man: When Teen Girls Become Murderous
Alex Mar on how and why teen-girl duos become murderous.
Posted inHighlight, Quotes
Sliding Toward Disaster
Water parks — competing to have the tallest, fastest, scariest slides — invent their own attractions and monitor their own safety, creating a deadly conflict of interest.
Posted inNonfiction, The Atavist Magazine, Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Chris Outcalt, Corie Brown, Daniel Immerwahr, Toniann Fernandez, and Karen Abbott.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Improbable Cause
Three healthy people died at 3635 Pitch Pine Crescent in Mississauga, Ontario, in less than four years. In this in-depth multi-media piece at the Toronto Star, Amy Dempsey unravels how a series of missteps and errors at every phase of the investigation nearly allowed one couple to get away with murder — three times.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Why Do We Think Serial Killers All Wear the Same Glasses?
A cultural survey of the myth of murders’ eyewear.
Posted inNonfiction
The Criminalization of the American Midwife
New York midwife Elizabeth Catlin faces 95 individual felony counts at her upcoming trial. For what? For doing her job. Politics and patriarchy make the work of many credentialed, experienced midwives illegal — to the detriment of women and underserved communities.
Posted inNonfiction
On Silence (or, Speak Again)
Elissa Bassist breaks her silence about everything she’s not supposed to talk about and comes out alive.
Posted inNonfiction
United States of Conspiracy: An Interview with Anna Merlan
“Most people in America believe in one conspiracy to some extent, but the far end of the pool … is this desire to show that you really do reject all knowable authority.”
