Growing up in Los Angeles as a Latino child interested in science, Miguel Ordeñana didn’t really have any role models to look up to. Now, as a wildlife biologist, his research on P-22, the famous mountain lion of Griffith Park, is important and inspiring. Ordeñana is an advocate for landscape connectivity and a more inclusive […]
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The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Showcasing stories from Nicholas Hune-Brown, Nick Sturm, Samanth Subramanian, Kristin Idaszak, and Sy Safransky.
Plovers Quarrel: A Tiny, Endangered Bird Returns to Sauble Beach to Find Sunbathers Dug Into the Sand
After a 30-year absence, the plover, a tiny bird, returned to touristy Sauble Beach on the Ontario Peninsula. Now, the town’s residents are arguing over what the beach should be — and how both humans and these endangered birds can share the sand. Pristine white sand is the preferred backdrop for sunbathing, picnics, sandcastles and […]
Searching for the Mountaintop in Upstate New York
A family confronts its racial past along the Appalachian Trail.
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Vauhini Vara
The author of Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age and The Immortal King Rao on memorable meals and books about whales.
Finding Worth Among the Echoes
Faded music dreams, a fledgling family farm, and a search for new definitions of work and success.
Walking on Faith and the Week’s Top 5
“Most people here were trying to find a way to live with events that could have broken their lives: absence, illness, loss, death. How could I fault them for something I also wanted, which was to wring meaning from things that have none?” “Why was I stumbling alongside this mass of the devout?” This is […]
People vs. 👻, Townspeople vs. Nazis, and Our Top 5
“The new bridge is square where the old bridge is round, bustling instead of deserted, awash in the sounds of schools and neighborhoods nearby. At some point, Lydia’s haunting shifted along with the traffic patterns. She’s been seen at both bridges, but the new one is the only place she might still hail passing motorists.” […]
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, our editors recommend longreads by Benjamin Wofford, Josh Dzieza, Evan Osnos, Alice Wong & Ed Yong, and Dan Kois.
Best of 2023: Profiles
The profiles we loved in 2023 cover a Uvalde mom turned gun-control advocate, Ginni and Clarence Thomas, a love letter to Louisiana and two unrelated women born there in 1953, the man behind the Twitter persona “Dril,” and an underdog surfer nicknamed “Casual Luke.”


