“Whatever else it might be, a military parade is always a reminder of how readily the armed forces can be deployed both at home and abroad.”
Search results
The Docteur Is In
“The Congolese rumba pioneer Docteur Nico helped define the sound of African decolonization—and became one of the great visionaries of the electric guitar.”
Whither the Nerd-Bully?
“Bill Gates was the monopolistic father figure who Silicon Valley’s young founders rebelled against—and, in so rebelling, became.”
Spaghetti Underground
“The MTA’s new redesign of the New York City subway map is the latest of many attempts to capture the sprawling network on paper.”
She Knows a Place
“For seven decades, the gospel singer Mavis Staples has troubled the opposition between chorus and soloist, background and lead.”
Ever New
“In Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s music, the present moment is an astonishing, improbable gift.”
Days and Nights in Gaza
“Watching TV that first day, we awaited the roar of planes and the rumble of explosions. We didn’t have to wait long.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Deaths in donation bins, the Hardy boys, MAGA slop, billionaire playgrounds, and nostalgia for the complicated.
Soundscapes of the Silenced
“In late Renaissance Florence one in five women lived behind institutional walls whose rule was sensory mortification. Historians are struggling to recover their inexpressible secrets.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Recommending notable stories by Wyatt Williams, John Leland, Jonathan Weiner, Suzy Hansen, and Max Ufberg.

