“At the start of the coronavirus outbreak, one ill-fated cruise ship became a symbol for the panic and confusion that would soon engulf the globe. Doug Bock Clark uncovers what two harrowing weeks trapped aboard the ‘Diamond Princess’ felt like—for unsuspecting tourists, for frightened crew members, even for the captain himself.”
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Best of 2023: All of Our Number One Story Picks
Every piece we selected as our top story of the week in 2023, all in one place.
Killer Mike Takes His Allies Where He Finds Them
“You may start off with Professor X but Magneto got a fucking point.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Doug Bock Clark, Thomas Lake, Leslie Jamison, Paul Thompson, and Jude Isabella.
Longreads Best of 2020: Writing on COVID-19
Our top story picks in COVID-19 reporting this year.
The Fracking Lottery
“When I moved to Billtown, I worried most about whether fracking tainted groundwater. By the time I left the area, my biggest concern was whether the liberty granted to citizens to lease their land, or to otherwise act in ways that limits others’ access to environmental goods, taints democracy.”
Am I Writing About My Life, Or Selling Myself Out?
After people repeatedly recognize Shannon Keating and her girlfriend from a personal essay she published about a lesbian cruise, and in the midst of the furor over Natalie Beach’s essay about her friendship with Instagram influencer Caroline Calloway on The Cut, Keating wonders about the line between writer and influencer, and the ethics of writing […]
The Big Bear Reading List
The elusive bear is a thing of fascination, and writers have a lot to say about them.
Longreads Best of 2020: All of Our No. 1 Story Picks
Here’s every story that was chosen as No. 1 in our weekly Top 5 email.
What Is Elizabeth Rush Reading? : Books on Antarctic Adventure, Ice, Motherhood
“I sometimes wonder if this continent of ice is begging for a different kind of story to be told about it.”

