The original reporting, personal essays, columns, and collaborations that were our most-read stories of the year.
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Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Working Class Jilts America’s Sweetheart Deal
The working class is walking away from America’s favorite business transaction — traditional marriage — as good jobs disappear.
Posted inNonfiction
I’m Not Queer to Make Friends
By Trying on the Role of Reality TV Villain, Logan Scherer Confronts His Gay Shame
Posted inNonfiction, Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from David Dobbs, Rachel Aviv, Max Read, Holly George-Warren, and Bianca Bosker.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Annie Dillard’s Classic Essay: ‘Total Eclipse’
Dillard’s 1982 personal essay — excerpted by The Atlantic from her new collection, The Abundance: Narrative Essays Old and New. She writes in exquisite detail about the haunting, surreal experience of witnessing the last solar eclipse, on February 26th, 1979, after driving five hours inland in Washington State to catch it from a hill top.
Posted inCurrent Events, Highlight, Nonfiction, Quotes, Science & Nature
Will Big Pharma Help Save Some of the Oldest Marine Life on Earth?
To save threatened shorebirds, one pharmaceutical biologist had to figure out how to save the crabs they depend on.
Posted inReading List, Sports
‘Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body’ and Other Lies I’ve Been Told: A Reading List on Mental Health and Sport
Jacqueline Alnes shares 10 pieces that examine sports and mental health.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Profiles & Interviews, Science & Nature, Story
‘I Cannot Name Any Emotion That Is Uniquely Human.’
According to primatologist Frans de Waal, we don’t like to admit that animals, especially apes, have emotions just like ours, and science has become better at studying apes’ behaviors than human ones.
Posted inArts & Culture, Profiles & Interviews, Story
Beyond “Rumble”: Talking with John O’Connor About the Other Link Wray
Journalist John O’Connor talks about writing his epic Oxford American magazine feature on musician Link Wray.
Posted inArts & Culture, Nonfiction, Quotes, Science & Nature
Mothering Is Not the Enemy of Creative Work
Journalist Erika Hayasaki uses science to show how motherhood can improve creativity.
