“An Austrian heiress recruited fifty people from all walks of life to redistribute twenty-five million euros—if they could agree on how to spend it.”
Search results
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Recommending excellent stories from Lewis Hyde, Reeves Wiedeman, Sam Myers, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and David W. Brown.
New Yorkers Never Came ‘Flooding Back.’ Why Did Rents Go Up So Much?
“Getting to the bottom of a COVID-era real estate mystery.”
What Professional Organizers Know About Our Lives
“Overwhelmed by too much stuff, we hire experts to help us sort things out. But what’s really behind all the clutter?”
The Crimes Behind the Seafood You Eat
“China has invested heavily in an armada of far-flung fishing vessels, in part to extend its global influence. This maritime expansion has come at grave human cost.”
The Good Catholics of Buffalo
With thousands of US soldiers dying in Vietnam, a righteous group of young New Yorkers embarked on a secret mission to bring the war machine to its knees.
What Happens to a School Shooter’s Sister?
“Twenty-five years ago, Kristin Kinkel’s brother, Kip, killed their parents and opened fire at their high school. Today, she is close with Kip—and still reckoning with his crimes.”
What Happens to All the Stuff We Return?
“Online merchants changed the way we shop—and made ‘reverse logistics’ into a booming new industry.”
A Year in Reading: When the Going Gets Tough
These are the stories I couldn’t stop thinking about—the ones that ask us to sit with darkness and still find reasons to keep going.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
In this week’s Top 5 we have lessons from apartheid, clever Claude, feeling bodies anew, the power of wax, and free mining.

