“New research transports us back to the shadowy firelight of ancient caves, imagining the minds and feelings of the artists.”
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Dark Matter
“Frank realized that people needed a way to talk about the messy topics often off limits in everyday conversation.”
The Race to Save our Online Lives from a Digital Dark Age
“We’re making more data than ever. What can—and should—we save for future generations? And will they be able to understand it?”
The Elusive Erykah Badu
“Twenty years ago, she dropped Baduizm, the album that created a genre. I wanted to know how she did it and found something I hadn’t bargained for.”
Land Ownership Makes No Sense
“The earth is a shared inheritance, and profiting off a common resource is just wrong.”
To Understand Mississippi, I Went to Spain
“The forces that would shape my home state’s violent history were set in motion by a 480-year-old map made by a Spanish explorer.”
Reading Detroit in a Season of Mourning
“It was during the lockdown bike rides that I started to register this language of landscape as expressed in Detroit. There is a power in these markers of non-instrumental processes, which metabolize what was, and give it new life and new form. It is all beautiful, yes, and the forsythias in April were everywhere and […]
A Soundtrack for Longing, What Museums Reveal, and Our Top 5
“I most love a city I can describe to you by sound or song. Landmarks created via sonic moments, rather than the fleeting nature of architecture.” —Hanif Abdurraqib Welcome to the weekend! I want to thank all the readers who have recently signed up for a Longreads membership. Members will continue to receive this Top […]
Musical Rivalries and our Weekly Top 5
“Before hip-hop brought the concept of ‘beef’ into the mainstream, rock and roll’s aggression and excess resulted in many an unfriendly rivalry; decades earlier, the hard life of the traveling jazz musician led to some heady and memorable fallouts. Whether it’s pop stars, country singers, dancehall artists, or Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s recent multi-song war, […]

