To understand what the Golden State is compared to what it was, one solitary hiker follows the trail of the first overland Spanish expedition into California 250 years later.
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Records on Bone
One young Ukrainian-American struggles to piece together a clear portrait of her parents’ difficult Soviet past, once they quit erasing, and began embracing, their legacy.
The Couple Who Turned a California Desert Into a Multi-Billion Dollar Snack Empire
Taxpayers have helped Stewart and Lynda Resnick turn an irrigated desert into a dangerous and lucrative agricultural gamble.
The Future of Decisions
If humans can’t decide, “the future of life will be decided at random.”
Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo-Hoo
A Childless Millennial’s Guide to Falling Apart at Disney World
How Southern Cities Are Joining the Knowledge Economy
Greenville, South Carolina has revitalized its city center by incubating start-ups. Can other Southern cities do the same?
At the Very Least We Know the End of the World Will Have a Bright Side
Solarpunk, a new genre of science fiction, demands radical optimism of its writers and readers. It takes the apocalypse as given, but doesn’t assume the worst of people living through it.
The ISIS Files
On five trips to Iraq, Rukmini Callimachi and a team of other New York Times journalists scoured files and other papers left behind by the Islamic State, which help explain how the so-called Caliphate had been able to stay in power there for a number of years. The impression left behind? That ISIS’s penchant for […]
Why Bugs Deserve Our Respect
Fruit flies helped us win six Nobel prizes in medicine. Architects have been inspired by termite hills. Ecologist Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson explains why bugs are so essential to the world we live in.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Chris Outcalt, Corie Brown, Daniel Immerwahr, Toniann Fernandez, and Karen Abbott.

