Geologists on a mission to vindicate their theory of a lost mountain range discover something even more significant buried beneath the ice.
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The Oldest Restaurant in Kabul: Where Tradition Trumps Rockets
For over 70 years, Bacha Broot, located in the center of the Old City of Kabul, has been serving chainaki — savory lamb stew — despite Soviet occupation, civil war, and the Taliban.
The Tender, Wild Realm of Children’s Literature: A Reading List
The plot of the book came to me as I was falling asleep: two girls share a bedroom, and squabble until they have no choice but to divide their room in half. Only one girl has access to the bedroom door. The other has the closet, which turns out to be an elevator. Suddenly, I was […]
An Interview with MacArthur ‘Genius’ Viet Thanh Nguyen
2017 MacArthur fellow Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses questions of justice, diversity in literature, and empathy across cultures.
The Day We Discovered Our Parents Were Russian Spies
Alex and Tim Foley, whose family’s story partly inspired The Americans, grapple with their broken identities and their parents’ lifetime of lies.
My Grandfather’s Fateful Goodbye, Reimagined
Karissa Chen tries to reconstruct the moment her grandfather, at 19, left Shanghai for Taiwan on a supposed vacation—a decision that would alter his life forever.
Longreads Best of 2017: All of Our No. 1 Story Picks
Here’s every story that was chosen as No. 1 in our weekly Top 5 email.
The Woman Who Smashed Codes: America’s Secret Weapon in World War II
How “know-nothings” Elizebeth Smith Friedman and William F. Friedman became the greatest codebreakers of their era.
Take Me Home
While teaching English to communist party officials in post-war Laos, Kathryn Kefauver Goldberg reflects on silence and the legacy of trauma.
My Father’s Adventure Was My Terror
With the decision to take his 13-year-old daughter on a dangerous drive to Peshawar, Diana Whitney’s charismatic father became a regular fallible human in her eyes.

