Wendy McClure recounts how an old audio tape of holiday music becomes a record of family history, unspoken rituals, and grief.
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‘I Was Trapped Forever In This Present Tense’: Carmen Maria Machado on Surviving Abuse
“She was always afraid of my voice. That was the defining factor of our relationship — fear of what I would say and write and do. She’s afraid of … the narrative that I possess.”
Deconstructing Disney: The Princess Problem of ‘Frozen II’
Audiences wanted Disney to give Elsa a girlfriend. But the Frozen franchise is at the center of the corporation’s latest princess project, whose nationalist concerns are decidedly here for the gay agenda.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Sarah Weinman, Stephen Rodrick, Bianca Giaever, James Ross Gardner, and Megan Pugh.
Out of Toon
Political cartoons don’t make a huge chunk of change, but they do change the culture. If only that were as valuable to the media as money.
Editor’s Roundtable: Gossip, Dirt, and Reality (Podcast)
Longreads editors discuss stories in Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, ESPN, Kotaku, and The Globe and Mail.
Cut From the Same Cloth
Artist Myfanwy Tristram was irritated by her teenage daughter’s extreme fashions — until she took an illustrated journey into their origins.
Eating To Save My Mind
Can diet determine the future of your mental health? Claire Fitzsimmons attempts to find out through a month of Whole30.
Still Waters
The muted response to Todd Haynes’s “Dark Waters” is depressingly similar to our culture’s muted response to climate change

