Put another way, the supposition on which our mass incarceration is premised—namely, that it materially reduces crime—is, at best, a hunch. Yet the price we pay for acting on this hunch is enormous. This is true in the literal sense: it costs more than $80 billion a year to run our jails and prisons. It […]
Search results
Posted inNonfiction
Longreads Best of 2016: Business & Tech Reporting
We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here, the best in business and tech reporting.
Posted inNonfiction
Longreads Best of 2016: Investigative Reporting
We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here, the best in investigative reporting
Posted inNonfiction
Xenu’s Paradox: The Fiction of L. Ron Hubbard and the Making of Scientology
Alec Nevala-Lee, author of Astounding, a forthcoming book on the history of science fiction, digs into the writing career of L. Ron Hubbard, gaining new insights into the life of the controversial founder of dianetics and the origins and nature of Scientology itself.
Posted inNonfiction
Longreads Best of 2016: Under-Recognized Stories
We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here, the best in under-recognized stories.
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
Longreads Best of 2016: Sports Writing
We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here, the best in sports writing.
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
David Bowie, 1947-2016
Here are six stories about the rock star who left a mark on music, fashion, and art.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Robert Oppenheimer on Albert Einstein and the Bomb
Though I knew Einstein for two or three decades, it was only in the last decade of his life that we were close colleagues and something of friends. But I thought that it might be useful, because I am sure that it is not too soon—and for our generation perhaps almost too late—to start to […]
Posted inBlog Post, Nonfiction
Riding the Rails: Celebrating Trains and Subway Commuter Life
My other half Rebekah and I recently returned from Japan, and we’re in that rapture phase where you wish the things you loved overseas were also available in America. I already miss the 24-hour action of Japanese cities, their automated restaurants, the street-side vending machines — and public transportation. In Japan, trains run on time. […]
Posted inBlog Post, Nonfiction
Canada, Who Are You?
Canada seemed like the perfect country: scenic, peaceful, friendly, progressive. But the country has its dark sides too.
