“Racing pigeons hightail it home in competitions across the state.”
Search results
On Brotherhood and Blindness
“In a hospital in the heart of the British empire, two young patients from worlds away strike up a friendship.”
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.
Look, Love, Laugh, and Our Top 5 of the Week
“How does visual thinking become visual design become visual communication? How does data become information become meaning? What is lost along the way? ” Many years ago, someone sent me a mango for Valentine’s Day. Upon questioning my unexpected fruit delivery, I was told that a mango is a better representation of a human heart than […]
How Does a Magician Trick Other Magicians? We Went to Find Out
“At the ‘magic Olympics,’ magicians from around the world compete to be deemed the world’s best. To win, they must fool each other.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Recommending excellent stories by Charlotte Higgins, Lex Pryor, Michael Hardy, Elissa Altman, and Brad Phillips.
The Plot to Kill the Olympics
“Just as the pandemic inspired political and social change the world over, so, during the course of 2020, did many of the bigger Olympic sports experience a quiet remaking.”
Learning to Walk Again (and Our Top 5)
“The average U.S. public school has about 550 students. Imagine eight or nine schools in an area roughly the size of Philadelphia where every kid is missing at least one limb. Imagine also that their amputations happened alongside a torrent of other tragedies: the loss of family members, friends, neighbors, schools, houses.” In the latest issue of […]
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
In this edition: January begins, finding beauty, powerful blues, toxic water, and begonia batons.


