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When you search for the term "longreads," you're looking for a great story to sink into. For 15 years, Longreads has published and curated the best longform writing on the web—and we wouldn’t exist without the support of readers like you. Make a one-time donation today and ensure that quality journalism continues to flourish.
For 15 years, Longreads has published and curated the best longform writing on the web—and we wouldn’t exist without dedicated readers like you. Give today and ensure that quality journalism continues to flourish.
All through December, we’ll be featuring Longreads’ Best of 2014. To get you ready, here’s a list of every story that was chosen as No. 1 in our weekly Top 5 email. If you like these, you can sign up to receive our free weekly email every Friday. * * * I Smoked Pot with […]
A young man concerned that the police will take him into custody comes to see danger and risk in the mundane doings of everyday life. To survive outside prison, he learns to hesitate when others walk casually forward, to see what others fail to notice, to fear what others trust or take for granted.
“I have consciously tried to refocus my attention away from being a film critic and toward being a film historian.”
Grant Cunningham’s violent death ricocheted over 18 years in the final fate of his brother Blair: The air was cool and damp, the temperature hovering above zero but feeling colder, the last bite of winter pushing back against the warm spring sun. By the last Saturday in March, 2013, Blair Cunningham had moved into a […]
How Rob Thomas—creator of the beloved TV series Veronica Mars—used Kickstarter to bring his show to the big screen: On the morning of March 13, 2013, Thomas hit the “Launch Project” button on his laptop screen. He’d also installed the Kickstarter app on his iPhone, with the notifications option turned on. For the next several […]
An intimate recollection of a Beat legend.
The greatest adventure game ever made returns from the dead.
In 1984, Mitch McConnell hired Roger Ailes to help him win elections. He’d soon learn what that really meant.
Abebe goes inside the viral site Upworthy to discover their motivations and their formula for reaching a huge audience: Its choices are the ones you’d normally associate with a race to the bottom—the manipulative techniques of ads, tabloids, direct-mail fund-raising, local TV news (“Think This Common Household Object Won’t Kill Your Children? You’d Be Wrong”). […]
“There often is a ‘tone’ in writing about the poor. There is a presumption that people of a certain class are mired in misery.”
