” Hospitals use drug tests that return false positives from poppy seed bagels, decongestants and Zantac. Yet newborns are being taken from parents based on the results.”
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Posted inEditor's Pick
They Followed Doctors’ Orders. Then Their Children Were Taken Away.
“Federal law has put thousands of women on anti-addiction medications into an impossible bind: Give up your treatment or risk losing your baby.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Inside the Psychiatric Hospitals Where Foster Kids Are a “Gold Mine”
“How a scandal-plagued health care giant profits off a failing child welfare system.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
She Never Hurt Her Kids. So Why Is a Mother Serving More Time Than the Man Who Abused Her Daughter?
Oklahoma incarcerates more women than almost any other state. Under its punishing, under-the-radar “failure to protect” law, mothers — even those who are victims of domestic violence — can be sent to prison because of their supposed failure to keep their children out of harm’s way. In this devastating read, Samantha Michaels tells the story […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Extraordinary Circumstances
Kenneth Watkins’s son, Kenny, was 6 days old when he was taken away by ACS, New York City’s child-welfare agency. Kenny was then placed with an affluent foster family. To regain custody, Watkins had to prove that being poor didn’t make him a bad father. Despite Watkins’ constant efforts, it took years to get Kenny […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Landlord & the Tenant
“A young mother rents a house near Milwaukee. The previous tenant tells her, ‘Baby, they shouldn’t have let you move in.'”
Posted inNonfiction
Best of 2023: Investigations
Our top picks in the investigative reporting category.
Posted inCuration
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring stories from Jenisha Watts, Aymann Ismail and Mary Harris, Elizabeth Kolbert, Wyatt Williams, and Jackson Wald.
Posted inNonfiction
A Vigilante Murder in Grand Marais
How a shocking crime divided a small Minnesota town.
Posted inUncategorized
Iconic Comics of a Cuban Cartoonist and the Week’s Top 5
“If an image is the idea of an idea, then a franchise is that second idea in perpetuity, because the image is the thing you can sand down and actually sell. You can’t profit off of history unless you rewrite it.” Welcome to the weekend! Our newest Longreads feature, by writer and culture critic Gyasi […]
