“There’s an idea that laborers end up in their role because it’s all they’re suited for. What put us there, though, was birth, family history — not lack of talent for something else.”
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Posted inEssays & Criticism
Longreads Best of 2017: Essays
We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in essays.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Scarface of Sex: The Millionaire Playboy Who Murdered His Way to the Top of Porn
Michael Thevis built a lucrative pornography empire in the 1960s and ’70s only to spend the end of his life in prison. His family opened his personal diaries to a journalist for the first time to get the whole, crooked, tragic story.
Posted inTop 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Lizzie Presser, Linda Villarosa, Maurice Chammah, Mike Giglio, and Will Storr.
Posted inEditor's Pick
My Dentist’s Murder Trial
James Lasdun tells the story of how his Kingston, NY-based dentist, Gilberto Nunez, D.D.S., wound up in prison. Lasdun writes about attending Nunez’s trial for the murder of his lover’s husband — a man he called his friend — with an eye toward the ways in which law enforcement can botch a case by determining […]
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
To Be Clean
A tender relationship with a fellow exotic dancer shows Natassja Schiel how to love her sister, a recovering addict.
Posted inBooks, Culture, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee
“Our cultures are not dead and our civilizations have not been destroyed. Our present tense is evolving as rapidly and creatively as everyone else’s.”
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
To Heil, or Not To Heil, When Traveling in the Third Reich
One of the first decisions any tourist had to make when crossing the German border in the mid-1930s was whether or not to “Heil Hitler.”
Posted inCrime, Nonfiction, Quotes
Down and Out in Rancho Santa Margarita
When a retired cop starts robbing banks, it takes a reporter to figure out why.
Posted inCrime, Nonfiction, Quotes
‘Everyone is Guilty All the Time’
Is prosecuting crimes about justice, or conviction rates? In Shelby County, Tennessee, the answer isn’t so clear.
