A tender relationship with a fellow exotic dancer shows Natassja Schiel how to love her sister, a recovering addict.
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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.”
A History of American Protest Music: This Is the Hammer That Killed John Henry
How a folk hero inspired one of the most covered songs in American history.
How One Porn Mogul Made His Fortune and Ruined Everything
Michael Thevis built a lucrative pornography empire in the 1970s only to spend the rest of his life in prison.
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.
Decolonizing Knowledge: Stefan Bradley on the Fight for Civil Rights in the Ivy League
In the 1960s, black students at the Ivies organized and protested for fair treatment, their personal safety, to create black studies programs, and to stop their universities from harming local black communities through expansion and urban renewal.
Eating to America
When Naz Riahi was 9, she escaped tragedy in Iran only to be confronted by a cruel new world in America. Food became her solace and her tool for assimilating.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Eli Hager, Bryan Curtis, Terry DeMio and Dan Horn, Alexander Nazaryan, and Ellie Shechet.
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 […]
A Trip to Tolstoy Farm
Even if one of the last surviving Tolstoyan communes has fallen short of Leo Tolstoy’s ideals, it’s still turned into something meaningful. It’s a place for people who don’t want to be found.

