“Words only ever do so much. But, time and again, Saunders’s words—in his own stories, and in conversation—reveal their utility. They insist on our dignity, however and wherever they find us. And they help us extend the same dignity to others.” This week my wife and I watched the documentary Cover-Up, about journalist Seymour Hersh […]
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The Wonder of Walking and the Week’s Top 5
“I’ve always been intrigued by how environments influence the way we move, feel, and experience—and how our movements, in turn, change those environments.” Once a day, we suit up the dog and take a family walk to a park overlooking the Salish Sea. There’s something about watching dogs at play that fills us up. The […]
To Be a Field of Poppies
“The elegant science of turning cadavers into compost.”
Her Greatest Hits
“Maybe it’s only when you don’t know what you are listening for that you find what you were waiting all along to discover.”
Best of 2024: All Our Number One Story Picks
Every story that appeared in the number one slot in our Weekly Top 5, all in one place.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
The April 12 edition features stories by Stephanie McCrummen, Mark Warren, Trina Moyles, Laura Preston, and Jack King.
A banger of a Christmas story, best of 2023, and more
“I have enjoyed many happy Christmases and plenty of disappointing ones, like the one I spent eating alone at a Waffle House due to an ice storm, or the Christmas my father accused all the unmarried relatives of being gay. But of all the sad Yuletides of my life, the one I spent guarding $100,000 […]
‘What Kind of Man Would Abandon His Family By Pretending To Be Dead?’
A father’s disappearance, dark family secrets, and the hunt for Bigfoot.
Fruit Flies Are Essential to Science. So Are the Workers Who Keep Them Alive.
“Sustaining the world’s biggest Drosophila collection during the pandemic has been a challenge, but the people in Indiana who supply the insects to labs around the world stay dedicated to the task.”
This Week: Rituals, Emoji, and a Cold Case
“Ritual is an urge and an act; it’s an aesthetic gesture. As an adult I established the habit of turning my attention to those subtle seasonal details and recording them. I was loving and honoring the land, but this practice still left something undone. A certain clarity, maybe formality. Something like a frame around a […]


