“The oboe has 500 parts. Turning a profit is a killer. But Jim Phelan is bent on reviving one of the great names in classical music.”
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Monsters, Mothers, Mulieres: A Reading List on The Women of Classical Antiquity
Five stories of ambitious empresses, fearsome gladiators, and ordinary working-class residents — glimmering snapshots of the female experience in the classical world.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Wright Thompson, Mitch Moxley, Patrick Radden Keefe, Joshua Sokol, and Ariane Todes.
Bad Blood (Longreads’ Version): A Musical Feuds Reading List
Whether competition between artists or strife within a band, popular music features some of pop culture’s messiest rivalries.
Seeing is Believing: A Reading List on Making Meaning from Data
Eight stories on the power and beauty of visual communication.
AI Is Coming for Music, Too
“New diffusion AI models that make songs from scratch are complicating our definitions of authorship and human creativity.”
Inside the World of “The Great British Bake Off”
“The show captures disastrous custard-making, quintessentially British faux-modesty, and the blistering hubris of bakers—including me.”
Ron’s Place
A man’s death revealed his secret masterpiece—his rented home, illegally transformed into a classical villa. What happened next questions how we define art.
Can AI Unlock the Secrets of the Ancient World?
“Almost 2,000 years ago, a volcano preserved Herculaneum’s vast library of scrolls but left them unreadable. A volunteer army of nerds has been racing to decipher them.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
We’re showcasing work by Patrick Radden Keefe, Ashlee Vance and Ellen Huet, Elizabeth Rush, Jonathon Keats, and Indrani Sen.

