“As Texas led a global revolution in designer party drugs, one restless club kid built an empire of ecstasy. His life is an all-American story of entrepreneurship, moral flexibility, and the heedless pursuit of happiness.”
Search results
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Mercy Workers
“For three decades, a little-known group of ‘mitigation specialists’ has helped save death-penalty defendants by documenting their childhood traumas. A rare look inside one case.”
Posted inNewsletter
The Search for Answers, and the Week’s Top 5
We become better in many ways, but it’s the best writers who give us the information and context required to do so, and let us do the work to get there.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Nazi of Oak Park
“It was a stunning revelation: A respected high school custodian had been a concentration camp guard. This excerpt of a new book examines how the disclosure of a dark secret in the early ’80s divided a suburb.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
DOGE-Pilled
“Luke Farritor could have been an artist, or a builder, or someone dedicated to seeing a great historical mystery through. Instead he wound up at the Department of Government Efficiency, slashing, dismantling, undoing.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
After the Hit-and-Run
“Can restorative justice offer crash victims like me—and the drivers who harmed us—the healing we need?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
America’s Monster
“Uncovering the brutal career of a crucial American ally. And the hidden truths of the war in Afghanistan.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
A Child Star at 7, in Prison at 22. Then She Vanished. What Happened to Lora Lee Michel?
“Hollywood is notorious for erasing people. But her sister and nieces refused to forget Lora Lee Michel.”
Posted inNonfiction
Best Of 2023: Features
At the time of this writing, Longreads editors have created nearly 650 recommendations in 2023, and just about every one of them can be considered a feature. However, you’ll find that the stories contained herein are features in the classic sense: marriages of deep reporting and indelible prose. Some are light, others emotionally taxing. Their […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
‘Sinister Industry’: Kansas City Company Behind 7-OH & a Growing Opioid Epidemic
“Because it exists in a gray zone of commerce, the true size of the 7-OH trade is tough to pin down. Estimates range from $2 billion to $8 billion. But one fact is clear: A surprising amount of it runs through Kansas City.”
