Here’s every story that was chosen as No. 1 in our weekly Top 5 email.
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(Alleged) Kings of the Con and the Week’s Top 5
“[T]he most compelling tales of grift aren’t the ones that depend on technology: the bottomless library of fraud-ready photos; the platforms that let anyone claim to be an epidemiologist or electoral fraud whistleblower; the software that can plop your face onto another person’s. No, the tales that captivate us most almost always reveal a person’s longing.” […]
Best of 2022: All of our No. 5 Story Picks
All the stories we’ve selected as number five in our weekly Top 5 newsletter.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Ben Taub, Paige Blankenbuehler, Alex Horton, Victoria Gannon, and Gustavo Arellano.
At War with the Truth
“A confidential trove of government documents obtained by The Washington Post reveals that senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable.”
Uncanny Testimony
As the last Holocaust survivors approach the end of their lives, an AI scholar grapples with technology that promises to freeze them in time.
The Thrill (and the Heavy Emotional Burden) of Blazing a Trail for Black Women Journalists
Dorothy Butler Gilliam remembers how exciting it was to integrate The Washington Post, but also how lonely — and often attacked — she felt as the first black woman reporter in the newsroom.
Longreads Best of 2020: Writing on COVID-19
Our top story picks in COVID-19 reporting this year.
Before You Eat or Drink Anything, Ask An Expert
Now tat certified taste experts specialize in a range of foods, from hot sauce to honey, is taste becoming too codified?
‘The American People Have Been Constantly Lied To’
“U.S. officials constantly said they were making progress. They were not, and they knew it.”


