“You can practice a song a thousand times and still its first note sends you into the unknown.”
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Best of 2025: The Stories You Missed
In a year of exceptional reading, these overlooked stories refused to let us go.
Planet TikTok
“The app’s young user base, fragmented content, and amped-up algorithm helped it spread around the world. If the US bans it, what would be lost?”
‘An Ass-Backward Sherlock Holmes’
“Over seven seasons on NBC, Columbo put a charming, shambolic gloss on the crime show. Now it has a new generation of imitators.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
In this edition: Eschatolgy, Texas style; dancing like nobody’s watching; the men, they myths, the legends; monumental responses; and notes fit for a King.
My Secret Police Files
“What did they really know about my activism, the men who could decide whether I lived or died?”
Feel-Ins, Know-Ins, Be-Ins
“A newly reissued recording proves that the late saxophonist Pharoah Sanders could get the grandest of effects from the humblest of riffs.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week we have stories from Patrick Fealey, S.C. Cornell, Sterry Butcher, Robin Wall Kimmerer and Jenny Odell, and Francisco Garcia.
A Year in Reading: Inward Journeys
Navigating a world in flux demands some understanding of who you really are, and some of my favorite pieces from this year speak to that need.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Recommending stories by Christina Cooke, Tim Neville, Nate Rogers, Linda Kinstler, and Sandra Beasley.

