These audience hits were the most-viewed picks on our site in 2025.
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Posted inEditor's Pick
Percival Everett Can’t Say What His Novels Mean
“The author of ‘Erasure’ is renowned for his satires of genre, identity, and America. But his great target may be language itself.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Why Are TV Writers So Miserable?
“On the cusp of a potential strike, writers explain why no one is having much fun making television anymore.”
Posted inTop 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week we have stories from Sarah Miller, James D. Walsh, Hanif Abdurraqib, Gabrielle Drolet, and Jeremiah David.
Posted inReading List
Science Cheats: A Reading List on Unscrupulous Scientists
Six stories on the shady side of scholarship.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Delicate Art of Turning Your Parents Into Content
“Gen Z creators are learning the lessons of Scorsese and Akerman: putting mom and dad in your work brings pathos, complexity, and a certain frisson.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Nuns Trying to Save the Women on Texas’s Death Row
“Sisters from a convent outside Waco have repeatedly visited the prisoners—and even made them affiliates of their order. The story of a powerful spiritual alliance.”
Posted inTop 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Recommendations from Bobbie Johnson; Bee Wilson; Jia Tolentino; Isra Fejzullaj, Rina Chandran, and Michael Zelenko; and Matthew Ponsford.
Posted inEditor's Pick
How 3M Executives Convinced a Scientist the Forever Chemicals She Found in Human Blood Were Safe
“Decades ago, Kris Hansen showed 3M that its PFAS chemicals were in people’s bodies. Her bosses halted her work. As the EPA now forces the removal of the chemicals from drinking water, she wrestles with the secrets that 3M kept from her and the world.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
How the Poet Christian Wiman Keeps His Faith
“Pushpin-specific lists fill his essays; single, stirring images lift from lines of his poems like the pages of a pop-up book.”
