A conversation with Lavinia Spalding, editor of The Best Women’s Travel Writing, and our recent picks.
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Aymann Ismail Speaks and an Atavist Excerpt
Aymann Ismail answers our questionnaire and an excerpt of The Atavist‘s latest story.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Desiree Stennett and Caroline Glenn, Imani Perry, Bethany Marcel, Joshua Hunt, and David Alm.
The Joy of New Words and the Week’s Top 5
“Yet I still doggy paddle in impostor syndrome. For I am not a biologist or cetologist, nor an oceanographer. I am just a woman with a pen, a profound love for water, and an eye for noticing patterns in the currents, eddies, and swirls of living.” Sometimes words aren’t enough. Or, at least, existing words […]
The Native Scholar Who Wasn’t
“Academia is an industry, like journalism, that defines itself in large part by its ethical standards; we’re supposed to educate people and produce knowledge. So what does it mean that we’re also a haven for fakes?”
Two Incisive Excerpts (And Our Top 5)
How Mac Barnett got inspired to write books for kids, a tense, deeply reported crime story, and our weekly Top 5.
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Julian Brave NoiseCat
The author of We Survived the Night and co-director of Sugarcane responds to our 25 questions on writing, reading, and creativity.
Outsourcing Your Appetite to YouTube
In this essay, co-published with Cake Zine, Adam Dalva writes about Ozempic, his fixation with watching food influencers eat, and a visit to a steakhouse.
Up, Up, and Away to the Week’s Top 5
“Wallace was a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants sort. A 54-year-old Massachusetts lawyer and real estate developer, he couldn’t afford to fly conservatively. Gas ballooning, similar to jockeyship, favored lightweight pilots, who could stock their baskets with more sand. Compared with his slighter opponents, Wallace’s six-foot-five, 240-pound frame meant that the equivalent of three additional 30-pound bags of sand […]


