This week we are featuring stories from Fletcher Reveley, Susan Freinkel, Nick Paumgarten, Dana Salvador, and Kathryn Hughes.
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Our Attraction to Disaster and the Week’s Top 5
“Deep in the valley below us, in the middle distance, gaped the great black cauldron of Litli-Hrútur, its insides awash in a churning fiery stew. We stood in silence on the observation mound with our hands on our hips, faces cast in childish masks of wonder and awe.” Last week, I hit the natural hazard […]
Fabulous Fungi and Our Top 5 of the Week
“To a reading list on these mind-bending entities at a planetary tipping point, welcome. What you see here are only some fruiting bodies, the rest lies underneath.” I first learned about the parasitic fungus that takes over a bug’s body and commandeers its brain back in 2023, when I picked Zhengyang Wang’s “The Last of […]
(Alleged) Kings of the Con and the Week’s Top 5
“[T]he most compelling tales of grift aren’t the ones that depend on technology: the bottomless library of fraud-ready photos; the platforms that let anyone claim to be an epidemiologist or electoral fraud whistleblower; the software that can plop your face onto another person’s. No, the tales that captivate us most almost always reveal a person’s longing.” […]
Between the Lines with Neal Allen, Anne Lamott, and Kory Stamper
The Longreads questionnaire with Neal Allen and Anne Lamott, a book excerpt from Kory Stamper, and our Top 5 Longreads of the week.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week we’re highlighting stories from Yuval Abraham, Paul Tough, Leslie Jamison, Melina Moe, and Meg Bernhard.
Uncanny Testimony
As the last Holocaust survivors approach the end of their lives, an AI scholar grapples with technology that promises to freeze them in time.
Relentless Toil: A Reading List About Filipino Laborers
The sacrifices of Filipino workers at home and abroad are enormous.
Enduring Battles, a Musical Childhood, and Our Top 5
“I felt like a rat trapped in a maze with no finish, running into walls and getting electrocuted at every turn. I wanted out of the hellscape I’d created, but I had formed a whole identity around the latticework of visible bones and tendons; my days were structured around the denial of food. To give […]
A near-death experience and our Top 5 stories of the week
“My boating experience was minimal and that section of river was not for beginners, but I had scraped by enough times that my risk assessment was dangerously off-kilter. It was a really, really bad combination.” Congratulations—we made it to the weekend! We’ve got some unforgettable stories for you this week. First, Maggie Slepian recounts her […]


