These audience hits were the most-viewed picks on our site in 2025.
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The Birth of My Daughter, the Death of My Marriage
“Being an adult meant watching many possible versions of yourself whittle into just one.”
My Family’s Daily Struggle to Find Food in Gaza
“In my homeland, where we used to cook and celebrate together, my relatives are eating animal feed to keep from starving.”
The Crimes Behind the Seafood You Eat
“China has invested heavily in an armada of far-flung fishing vessels, in part to extend its global influence. This maritime expansion has come at grave human cost.”
Revisiting My Rastafari Childhood
“Babylon was everything forbidden, and looming all around us—and my father tried to protect us from it at all costs.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Sharing stories from John Woodrow Cox, Sarah Blaskey, and Matt McClain; Daphne Chouliaraki Milner and Marcia Bjornerud; Susan Choi; Henry Wismayer; and Susannah Pratt.
What My Musical Instruments Have Taught Me
“When music made collaboratively with other musicians goes right, I feel a budding, rising warmth and comfort. Is this my mother smiling on me?”
A Year in Reading: The Wounds That Bind
On the hard-hitting, unforgettable stories of 2024.
Percival Everett Can’t Say What His Novels Mean
“The author of ‘Erasure’ is renowned for his satires of genre, identity, and America. But his great target may be language itself.”
The Delicate Art of Turning Your Parents Into Content
“Gen Z creators are learning the lessons of Scorsese and Akerman: putting mom and dad in your work brings pathos, complexity, and a certain frisson.”

