We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here, the best in investigative reporting
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Posted inEditor's Pick
How U.S. Torture Left a Legacy of Damaged Minds
So much for assurances that harsh interrogation techniques used by the United States at Guantanamo Bay and in secret CIA prisons around the world wouldn’t cause lasting harm. New York Times reporters interviewed over 100 former detainees for this article on the never-ending psychological torment many of them live with years later.
Posted inArts & Culture, Food, Nonfiction
Good Coffee Shouldn’t Have to Cost More Than $1
American’s infatuation with coffee, and the quest to see whether a delicious, $1 cup of joe is possible.
Posted inArts & Culture, Blog Post, Current Events, Media
Gossip and News, Strange Bedfellows
Recent stories exposing powerful, abusive men suggest there’s value in taking rumors seriously.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Death Penalty on Display
At The Texas Observer, Robin Ross writes on the rise of dark tourism — the macabre fascination with the Huntsville’s Texas Prison Museum — site of America’s first lethal injection.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Six Years Later, Over 400,000 Dead: The Graffiti Kids Who Sparked the Syrian War
Mark MacKinnon tells the story of Naief Abazid — who, at the urging of some older boys, graffitied a school wall on a lark in Daraa, Syria, at age 14. The “writing on the wall” enraged Syria’s Baathist dictatorship, and became the source of ignition in the Syrian war.
Posted inCommentary, Nonfiction, Reading List, Top 5
Longreads Best of 2016: Here Are All of Our No. 1 Story Picks from This Year
All through December, we’ll be featuring Longreads’ Best of 2016. To get you ready, here’s a list of every story that was chosen as No. 1 in our weekly Top 5 email.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Revisiting the Ghosts of Attica
A wrenching new book recounts the bloodiest prison battle in our history.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Never Before Was So Much of the World Fenced Off
If Google Maps were honest, it would show barbed wire everywhere – in combat zones, along national borders, around ranches, schools, and prisons: a brief history of the Devil’s Rope.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Story, Uncategorized
The Month of Giving Dangerously
Elizabeth Greenwood decides to give everything: time, money, praise, forgiveness. But when does generosity become a mania for giving?
