“I thought about the road leaving town, turning from pavement to dirt, mile after mile winding deeper into the woods. If I really thought about danger, that the road might bring me somewhere I couldn’t get out of, would I still go? Do I think anything can prevent this from happening? Why do I believe […]
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The 50 Greatest Fictional Deaths of All Time
The most tearjerking, hilarious, satisfying, and shocking death scenes in 2,500 years of culture, chosen by Slate editors and contributors. Needless to say, this piece contains spoilers: Pac-Man in Pac-Man Author: Toru Iwatani Year: 1980 Original medium: Video game What fictional entity has as much experience with death as an arcade character, for whom existence is but a […]
Trusting Your Gut and This Week’s Top 5
“I study the pinch pot in my hands. It seems suddenly urgent not to see them seeing me. Heat crawls from my cheeks to my hairline. I hear the furious thrum of blood in my ears. With my fingers I smooth down the walls of my pot. To my utter relief, no more questions follow.” […]
The Meaning of Tattoos and Our Top 5 of the Week
“When my father-in-law was growing up in Baltimore and misbehaved in Hebrew school with his friends, their teachers would calmly unbutton their cuffs and roll up their sleeves, revealing their tattoos from Auschwitz. I’ve seen worse, the tattoos said. Or perhaps, This could happen to you.” What does your tattoo mean? It’s a question often asked of […]
How OXO Conquered the American Kitchen
Whether it’s a salad spinner or a vegetable peeler, chances are your kitchen has at least one product from OXO — a brand that actually engineers and designs its own housewares goods, and has inspired broad devotion because of it. Slate’s Dan Kois visits the company’s New York headquarters for a piece that straddles the […]
Remembered Coast
A writer recollects her family history by excavating memories buried in Singapore’s reclaimed land.
The Night Gary Drove Me Home
“It is not a normal thing to do—to acknowledge to yourself that you may have slept with a serial killer.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Jill McCabe Johnson, Stacey Anderson, Megan Pillow, Barry Blanchard, and Elizabeth Rush.
‘This Is Going to Change the World’
“As the new millennium dawned, a mysterious invention from a charismatic millionaire became a viral sensation—then went down in flames. Ever since, I’ve wondered: Was it all my fault?”
The Editor Who Moves Theory Into the Mainstream
Among a certain breed of academic (and academia-adjacent) reader, Duke University Press holds an unswayable cachet. And in this tight, arch profile of Duke UP editor Ken Wissokur, Jennifer Wilson does the magazine version of what Wissokur does with his authors and their scholarly books: take something that sounds dreadfully dry, and make it perfectly […]


