“How did one of the best young bike racers in the country wind up dead in an Austin apartment?”
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The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week we’re recommending stories by Zarlasht Halaimzai, Gloria Liu, E. Jean Carroll, Amy Margolis, and Chris Colin.
My Road Trip With the Do-Gooding Cactus Smugglers
“Can poaching ever be ethical?”
They Would Not Dream of Flowers: Translating Through the Tehran Blackout
“There, in that forced isolation, I sat translating a story about death. Meanwhile, the real thing operated just outside my window.”
Keep Your Bird-Watching—I’m a Spider Man
“With climate change putting them in danger, they could use a few new friends.”
Ancient Jars
“We need containers, if only to exist with enough solidity to overcome them.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring standout reads from Ian Urbina, Hanif Abdurraqib, Sallie Tisdale, Brad Rassler, and Adam Reiner.
What I Found on the 365-Mile Trail of a Lost Folk Hero
“The Old Leatherman, a sort of real-life Northeastern Sasquatch, gave me an excuse to step outside my own life.”
No School, No Fresh Air and Isolated
“Children incarcerated in Shelby County’s juvenile detention center are frequently held in solitary confinement, according to more than two dozen sources who spoke with MLK50.”
One Woman’s Wholesome Mission to Get Naked Outside
Gloria Liu finds unexpected beauty in being naked outside, after a lifetime of resisting. Part of the fun is the sense that you’re getting away with something, she acknowledges. But the other part, she says, is reversing the shame around nudity that many of us, especially women, learned growing up.

