Longreads Pick
Grief counselors at Archbishop Moeller High School, an all-boys school, work with teens who have lost loved ones:
“Phillip begins to speak even more in this session. He says his father died of heart failure which was a result of quadriplegia. The death was not expected, he says, but it was not a surprise. He tells the class that when he held his father’s hand that night, it reminded him of his mother’s hand. He says he can still feel how cold her hand was.
“‘I remember touching her hand and trying to wake her up. It was the coldest thing I could ever feel,’ Phillip said. ‘When I touched my dad’s hand it was still warm, but it reminded me of it so much.’
“After the group, he said he is glad to be a member. ‘It’s enjoyable. You can actually talk and you realize there is a brotherhood. There are people you can go talk to.'”
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Published: Jun 9, 2013
Length: 34 minutes (8,504 words)
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Our recent Longreads Member Pick by National Magazine Award winner Andrew Corsello from GQ is now free for everyone. Special thanks to our Longreads Members for helping bring these stories to you—if you’re not a member, join us here.
“My Body Stopped Speaking to Me,” is a personal story about Corsello’s near-death experience, first published in GQ in 1995. Read more…
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Longreads Pick
Two sisters are helping police track down their father, who abused them and murdered their mother and younger sister in the 1980s:
“DNA analysis quickly confirmed that Gloria’s mother, Nilsa Padilla, was the murder victim known for decades as “Theresa Torso.” Gloria’s father, Jorge Walter Nuñez, instantly became the only suspect. For Miami-Dade police, it was a breakthrough in one of the department’s oldest and most vexing cases. For Gloria, it was salvation.
“‘They thought I was crazy,’ she says of the cops, foster parents, and caseworkers who ridiculed her claims for years. ‘Now they know I’m not.'”
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Published: May 8, 2013
Length: 22 minutes (5,575 words)
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Longreads Pick
A young woman tries out a bionic hand after losing her fingers and toes:
“Her dad wonders if the financial burden of the bionic hand is worth it. A left hand device won’t be considered until that’s clear. If the bionic hand’s too hard or awkward to use, will it collect dust on her nightstand? ‘She’s good without it. She’s so independent,’ he said once in the doctor’s office. ‘She does it all on her own.’
“Tisa’s progress depends on her determination, Bauer, the orthotist, tells them. And she has already come so far.”
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Published: Apr 14, 2013
Length: 6 minutes (1,745 words)
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Longreads Pick
A writer looks for a balance between creative ambition and financial security:
“I recently asked my dad if he ever regretted not following those early ambitions. No, he told me. Even though he’d toyed with doing a more commercial craft like silversmithing or pottery, he realized how hard a life that would be, always having to scramble to keep the money coming. So instead, he found a career that drew on something else he cared about—helping others—and that would also, in later years, allow him to support a family and have enough time to be active in raising them. ‘I was never out to make a whole lot of money. My whole goal was balance,’ he said.”
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Published: Apr 11, 2013
Length: 8 minutes (2,104 words)
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Longreads Pick
In the summer of 2012, a homeless man named William Greer Jr. was bludgeoned to death in a park in Austin, Texas. Greer’s case remains unsolved, and his daughter is determined to find answers:
“In the weeks that followed her dad’s death, Tangie drove to Austin three times: once to speak to police, once to speak to reporters, and once to commemorate what would have been Greer’s 50th birthday on July 29. On one of those visits, Tangie went to the spot where her father lost his life. She spoke to a transient named Chris who sleeps nearby and asked him if he had seen anything the night of the murder. She knew detectives had already questioned him—and eliminated him from their investigation—but maybe he had forgotten to tell them something that could prove crucial. ‘I was playing detective in a way,’ Tangie told me.
“Chris told her he didn’t remember her dad, but that he did recall another transient sleeping at the same spot before Greer’s murder, and afterward. He gave her a description of the man, and Tangie relayed the information to detectives. But she says they told her Chris wasn’t reliable. ‘If you interviewed him eight times, you’ll get eight different answers,’ a detective said.”
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Published: Apr 2, 2013
Length: 12 minutes (3,209 words)
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Longreads Pick
The number of Americans on disability has skyrocketed in the last three decades, and the Social Security Administration says the reserves in the disability insurance program are on track to run out in 2016:
“Scott tried school for a while, but hated it. So he took the advice of the rogue staffer who told him to suck all the benefits he could out of the system. He had a heart attack after the mill closed and figured, ‘Since I’ve had a bypass, maybe I can get on disability, and then I won’t have worry to about this stuff anymore.’ It worked; Scott is now on disability.
“Scott’s dad had a heart attack and went back to work in the mill. If there’d been a mill for Scott to go back to work in, he says, he’d have done that too. But there wasn’t a mill, so he went on disability. It wasn’t just Scott. I talked to a bunch of mill guys who took this path — one who shattered the bones in his ankle and leg, one with diabetes, another with a heart attack. When the mill shut down, they all went on disability.”
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Published: Mar 22, 2013
Length: 16 minutes (4,105 words)
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Longreads Pick
Two California men use conspiracy theories to fuel a massive tax-fraud scheme:
“The Old Quest presenters told Trinidad every time he used his social security number as part of a financial transaction, he was ‘creating money,’ and that when he signed a loan document, the bank received nine times the amount he borrowed. They warned attendees to not try the OID process themselves because its complexity would get them into trouble. ‘Leave it to the experts,’ they said.
“About a week later, the pastor went to Wilson’s Costa Mesa home, where she calculated the balance on his mortgages and credit cards that would be claimed as withheld income. Trinidad wrote a $2,500 check that day.
“The presenters made it sound as though Old Quest was working with lawyers and accountants. ‘Who in their right mind would think lawyers would do fraudulent things?’ Trinidad told investigators.”
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Published: Mar 14, 2013
Length: 17 minutes (4,360 words)
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Longreads Pick
[Fiction] A daughter talks about her father and his favorite TV Show:
“It’s the political woman who’s responsible for his new phase. I see him watching her on her TV show. With her husband & her kids, she’s traveling around her totally backward state. My dad loves that show. He gets all excited because sometimes she climbs out of their obnoxious vehicle & somebody hands her a rifle & she shoots a dog or a moose. ‘This woman’s real, Juby,’ my dad says. ‘You’ve got to sit down and watch this. This is how women used to be in this country.’
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Published: Mar 11, 2013
Length: 6 minutes (1,617 words)
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Longreads Pick
During the ’70s, a father persuades his daughter, a college-age feminist, to meet him at the Playboy Club:
“My conversation with my father been taking place on the hall phone in my dorm, Chapin Hall, which happened to be an all-women’s residence. Normally, the girls gave whoever was on the phone a lot of space, but with ‘Playboy Club’ and ‘Hugh Hefner’ springing out of the conversation like champagne corks, I attracted a crowd, a sort of Greek chorus in bathrobes and curlers. Jan, always a cut up, made bunny ears behind Jill. Linda, the biggest women’s libber on campus, raised the power salute. Karen and Nancy listened as they munched from a freshly popped bowl of popcorn. I was militant to begin with, but the more the women watched, the more emphatic my advocacy became.
“‘Dad,’ I tried to bargain, ‘why don’t you go to the Playboy Club with your friends, and I’ll meet you for dinner afterward.'”
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Published: Feb 20, 2013
Length: 11 minutes (2,856 words)
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