Gabrielle Gantz (@contextual_life) is the blogger behind The Contextual Life, a frequent longreader, and a fan of podcasts. 1. How Hip-Hop Works (Stuff You Should Know, 52:13) In this episode of Stuff You Should Know, hosts Chuck and Josh discuss the history of hip-hop, from The Sugar Hill Gang to the present. They add their own […]
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Letter from 'Manhattan'
Letter from ‘Manhattan’ The characters in these pictures are, at best, trying. They are morose. They have bad manners. They seem to take long walks and go to smart restaurants only to ask one another hard questions. “Are you serious about Tracy?” the Michael Murphy character asks the Woody Allen character in Manhattan. “Are you […]
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On the Death Sentence
On the Death Sentence Similarly, local elections affect decisions of state prosecutors to seek the death penalty and of state judges to impose it. “In states where judges were until recently empowered to override jury sentences,” Garland explains, “elected judges typically used this power to impose death rather than life. In Alabama the death-to-life ratio […]
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Alex Pappademas: My Top 5 Longreads of 2010
Alex Pappademas is a staff writer for GQ. *** Rules: Nothing not published this year, nothing from GQ, because I work there, and—in the spirit of the assignment—nothing I didn’t first read on my iPhone. (And I realize now, having done this whole thing, that everything on the main list is from a print-based publication, […]
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Paul Ford: My Top 5 Longreads of 2010
Paul Ford was an editor at Harper’s Magazine; now he’s wandering around, looking at stuff and writing computer programs. *** Tony Judt, “Night,” New York Review of Books (January 14) This was the year of the dying critic. Most writers would do themselves, and their readers, a service by dying without all the self-elegies (“selfegies”?). […]
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Gillian Reagan: My Top 5 Longreads of 2010
Gillian Reagan is an editor at Capital New York. She does other stuff, too. *** My rule was to steer clear of Capital articles (although you will recognize some bylines from contributors). These articles that weren’t necessarily the best writing of the year, but have frequently popped up and rolled around in my brain long […]
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Jay Caspian Kang: My Top 5 Longreads of 2010
Jay Caspian Kang is a fiction writer living in San Francisco. He is the author of The High is Always the Pain and the Pain is Always the High, an essay on gambling addiction that appeared in the Morning News and has been named on several “Best of 2010” lists. *** In no particular order. […]
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The Concealed Battle to Run Russia
The Concealed Battle to Run Russia The Federal Security Service (FSB) is in several ways more powerful and more of a threat to individual rights than the KGB was during the Soviet era. The KGB took its orders from the Communist Party, which always kept a close watch on its operations. In contrast, although both […]
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Gerald Marzorati: Five Longreads for Opening Day
Gerald Marzorati, a former editor of the New York Times Magazine, is an Assistant Managing Editor of the Times “Early Innings,” by Roger Angell. (The New Yorker, Feb. 24, 1992) (sub. required) America’s baseball belletrist here writes of how he came to love the game. “The Silent Season of a Hero,” by Gay Talese. (Esquire, […]
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Our first Longreads Member perk: A digital subscription to the New York Review of Books (Updated)
UPDATE: This offer is now closed (as of 7/19/2011). Thanks to NYRB and all the Longreads Members who signed up! Last month we introduced the (completely optional) Longreads Membership, and we’ve been thrilled with the response so far. I wanted to personally thank everyone for their support and encouragement. We’re also excited to announce the […]
