“In Nashville, a criminal-justice activist commits a baffling crime.”
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The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This edition highlights reading about messages in bottles, public benches, infinity, a series of books about everything, and pay-to-play orchestras.
The Car-Crash Conspiracy
“High-speed accidents, crooked lawyers, and poor people desperate for cash—it was the kind of scheme that could have been cooked up only in the Big Easy.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Deaths in donation bins, the Hardy boys, MAGA slop, billionaire playgrounds, and nostalgia for the complicated.
Lorne Michaels Is the Real Star of “Saturday Night Live”
“He’s ruled with absolute power for five decades, forever adding to his list of oracular pronouncements—about producing TV, making comedy, and living the good life.”
The Deaths—and Lives—of Two Sons
“The truth is that however I choose to express myself will not live up to the weight of these facts: Vincent died, and then James died.”
Did a Best-Selling Romantasy Novelist Steal Another Writer’s Story?
“Tracy Wolff, the author of the ‘Crave’ series, is being sued for copyright infringement. But romantasy’s reliance on standardized tropes makes proving plot theft tricky.”
What Happens After A.I. Destroys College Writing?
“The demise of the English paper will end a long intellectual tradition, but it’s also an opportunity to reĂ«xamine the purpose of higher education.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
We’re recommending stories by Danny Chau, Annalisa Quinn, Bijan Stephen, Jordan Michelman, and Anna Wiener.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
In this edition: January begins, finding beauty, powerful blues, toxic water, and begonia batons.

