Journalist Amos Barshad meets with “Putin whisperer” Aleksandr Dugin to try to understand how a shadowy advisor exerts influence.
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Mountains, Transcending
“Ever since I was five years old,” wrote opera singer–turned–Buddhist lama Alexandra David-Néel, “I craved to go beyond the garden gate, to follow the road that passed it by, and to set out for the Unknown.”
Alternative Reality: ‘California Divided’
A story about a blind, 88-year-old pharmacist in Memphis named Charles A. Champion, the end of All About Beer, and more in this alt weekly reading list.
Alternative Reality: ‘Howard Buffett’s Border War’
Redlining, immersive sound installations, a hidden mural and more in this edition of Alternative Reality.
Total Depravity: The Origins of the Drug Epidemic in Appalachia Laid Bare
In an excerpt from his essay collection, Australian journalist Richard Cooke reports on the American opioid crisis through the astonished eyes of a foreigner visiting steel and coal country.
Alternative Reality: ‘Inferno in Paradise’
President Donald Trump has obliterated any notion of off-time for round-the-clock journalists, but it was still a relief to see that the alt-weeklies I read for this installment in my regular reading list were starting off the new year strong. The Chico News & Review, whose work I have previously highlighted here, can be forgiven, […]
Longreads Best of 2018: Sports Writing
We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in sports writing.
School for Girls
Years after recovering from anorexia, Jasmin Sandelson writes a letter to the high school friend she idolized, and explores how hunger, love, and envy shaped — and ended — their relationship.
The Thrill (and the Heavy Emotional Burden) of Blazing a Trail for Black Women Journalists
Dorothy Butler Gilliam remembers how exciting it was to integrate The Washington Post, but also how lonely — and often attacked — she felt as the first black woman reporter in the newsroom.
The Brazilian Healer and the Patron Saint of Impossible Causes
Leigh Hopkins faces the hidden truth about the world’s most famous spiritual surgeon and the irresistible desire to find ‘the cure.’
