Taffy Brodesser-Akner explores America’s history of obsession with thinness and her own struggles with her body.
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Chelsea Manning Stays in the Picture
The New York Times styles Manning for her first profile—but she’s already in charge of her own image.
I Had To Leave My Mother So I Could Survive
Elisabet Velasquez reckons with a lifetime of disharmony with her religious, mentally ill mother.
A Pet Tortoise Who Will Outlive Us All
“It’s humbling to care for an animal that reminds you, each day, of your own imminent death.”
Paul Clarke Wants to Live
When a promising student left a neighborhood full of heroin for the University of Pennsylvania, it should have been a moving story. But what does an at-risk student actually need to thrive — or even just to survive?
The Backcountry Prescription Experiment
Mathina Calliope goes off her antidepressant and into the woods.
On Vanishing
Dementia is a kind of erasure, a death before death, where the living discount the infirmed long before they’re gone.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Libby Copeland, Patrick Blanchfield, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Cory Taylor, and Tabitha Blankenbiller.
If I Made $4 a Word, This Article Would Be Worth $10,000
Journalism’s one percent would rather make up a fake feud than address the reality of the industry’s pay disparity, which benefits them and no one else.
Bikini Kill — and My Bunkmates — Taught Me How to Unleash My Anger
While away at summer camp, Melissa Febos discovers the power of her generation’s rage and feminism.

