In this edition: subsea storytelling, a preservation paradox, achieving serpentine symbiosis, an investigation into infinity, and a marijuana mystery.
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The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
In this edition:
• Showing our age
• Special delivery
• Unfriendly wagers
• A shore thing
• Sale therapy
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Showcasing stories from Aaron Parsley, David Peisner, Leah Zani, Joseph Earl Thomas, and Matt Reynolds.
Defining Color
“A deep pink that is bluer, lighter, and stronger than average coral, bluer than fiesta, and bluer and stronger than sweet william.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Notable stories on chasing manhood, naming Gaza’s dead, searching the stacks for a rare book, leaving music behind, and opting out.
What Does It Mean to Protect Children?
“This is the question that ripped an idyllic high-plains town asunder.”
Invisible Ink: At the CIA’s Creative Writing Group
“When an organization has, say, financed the overthrow of the government of Guatemala, you would think there might be a speaking fee.”
An Age of Wonder (and Our Top 5)
Parenting lessons at a science museum, Catholic anti-war raiders, R. O. Kwon, and our top 5 reads of the week.
The Art of the Steal
The Social Register was a who’s who of America’s rich and powerful—the heirs of robber barons, scions of political dynasties, and descendants of Mayflower passengers. It was also the perfect hit list for the country’s hardest-working art thief.
Writing Through It (and the Week’s Top 5)
“I don’t get creatively unstuck. I just write despite the fact that I’m stuck. I learned a long time ago that being ‘stuck’ is really just the unshakable belief that everything you can think of writing is shit, and while that may be true, it might also not be, and the biggest predictor of whether […]


