Popular culture likes to depict electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) as sinister and dangerous. Leslie Kendall Dye reflects on the myths surrounding the treatment that saved her life.
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How Lobbyists Normalized the Use of Chemical Weapons on American Civilians
Or, how we learned to stop worrying and love the gas.
Born Again
“Rebirth therapy” was meant to help a troubled girl start over, but it ended her life instead.
The Unlikely Friendship of Long Ma and Bac Duong
When taxi driver Long Ma agreed to drive Bac Duong home, he had no idea he was about to be taken hostage by three escaped inmates.
Schrödinger’s Convict: Actually Innocent, Actually a Felon
An “Alford plea” gets an innocent man out of jail, but keeps him on the books as a convicted felon.
How Lobbyists Normalized the Use of Chemical Weapons on American Civilians
Or, how we learned to stop worrying and love the gas.
The Case for Dungeons & Dragons
I was never a Dungeons and Dragons person, but as a nerd, seems like they’ve always been nearby. I would not have expected a Venn diagram overlapping the D&D nerds I know — delightful, gentle weirdos who like elves and other imaginary creatures — with high security prisoners. Elisabeth de Cleer wrote about one such […]
Lyrical Ladies, Writing Women, and the Legend of Lauryn Hill
Joan Morgan’s “She Begat This” looks back at how Lauryn Hill crashed through hip-hop’s glass ceiling, while our critic looks at how the author and a cadre of black women writers did the same for hip-hop music journalism.
Longreads Best of 2017: Crime Reporting
We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in crime reporting.
The Gossip Columnist Who Became the News
Liz Smith looks back at her role in the Trump divorce.
