This week, we’re sharing stories from Connie Bruck, San Francisco Chronicle Staff, Justin Heckert, Kent Babb, and Rob Harvilla.
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The Eloquent Vindicator in the Electric Room
No one remembers the assassination of Congressman James M. Hinds. What do we risk by making it just another part of American history?
What Was the Washington Post Afraid Of?
Irin Carmon and Amy Brittain were on the verge of publishing an investigation looking into sexual misconduct allegations against a powerful executive at CBS. But the Washington Post decided not to run the story. Carmon looks back at how an important story was killed.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Recommending stories from Mariana Serapicos, Camille Bromley, Devon Fredericksen, Georgia Brown, and Sarah Golibart Gorman.
Editor’s Roundtable: Cities, And How They Used to be Good (Podcast)
This week, Longreads editors discuss stories in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The CT Mirror, and Engadget.
Judge a Book Not By its Gender
Lisa Whittington-Hill suggests there’s a distinct gender bias in celebrity memoirs. Where female celebrities are expected to expose all, male writers get to write about whatever they want.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week we have stories from Suzy Hansen, Raksha Vasudevan, Linda Kinstler, Erica Berry, and Dave Denison.
Ten Outstanding Short Stories to Read in 2025
Kickstart your reading year with 10 short stories selected by longtime contributor Pravesh Bhardwaj.
Fabulous Fungi and Our Top 5 of the Week
“To a reading list on these mind-bending entities at a planetary tipping point, welcome. What you see here are only some fruiting bodies, the rest lies underneath.” I first learned about the parasitic fungus that takes over a bug’s body and commandeers its brain back in 2023, when I picked Zhengyang Wang’s “The Last of […]
Longreads Best of 2021: All of Our No. 1 Story Picks
Here’s every story that was chosen as No. 1 in our weekly Top 5 email.


