A personal essay in which Kristen Roupenian writes about the experience of having “Cat Person” — her fictional short story about a young woman who goes through with sex she’d rather not have at the end of a bad date, published in the New Yorker in 2017 — go viral, become the subject of much […]
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Where Have All the Music Magazines Gone?
Inside music journalism post-2008 recession, and how media consumption in the 21st century offers a road map for the continuation of the once-robust medium.
A Genre of Myths: A Jazz Reading List
Created in New Orleans and played around the world, the music we call jazz is filled with genius, legend, and tragedy.
Longreads Best of 2020: Writing on COVID-19
Our top story picks in COVID-19 reporting this year.
Smoking: A Legal Weed Reading List
The economy, the culture, and the promise of cannabis.
Longreads Best of 2019: All of Our No. 1 Story Picks
Our top picks of the year, all in one place.
“The Ugliness of Greatness”: A Kobe Bryant Reading List
It has been a dozen days since the shocking death of the Los Angeles Lakers star. How do we talk about Kobe and his legacy on and off the court?
How a Thirteen-Year-Old Girl Smashed the Gender Divide in American High Schools
Journalist and documentarian — and Stuyvesant High School alumna — Laurie Gwen Shapiro profiles Alice de Rivera, whose 1969 case challenging Stuyvesant to open its enrollment to girls led to so many other male-only secondary schools and colleges to abandon gender-based exclusion.
The Trans Parent Whose Journey Inspired a Television Show
Her father’s gender transition was the impetus behind Jill Soloway’s show.
This Week in Books: Several Nihilistic Frenchmen
This week critics have looked to Huysmans, Camus and Jean-Philippe Toussaint for COVID-era inspiration.

