“Both marriage and religion had required exile from ourselves, a systematic suppression of our true identities. It was an adaptation that felt necessary for survival. But as I watched D explore, interrogate, and reinvent womanhood, changing the rules before my eyes, I wondered if I had been wrong.” Happy Friday, even if (in the Northern […]
Search results
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.”
The Venture
“How two single moms escaped an alleged sex-trafficking ring and ultimately saved each other.”
Life Inside the South African Gangs Risking Everything for Copper
“Demand is so high that thieves risk their lives to supply cartels with scrap metal.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Recommending stories from Lizzie Presser, Richard Smith, Drew Magary, David Fowler, and Douglas Starr.
In the Shadow of Silicon Valley
“The San Francisco of my youth was full of small shops whose friendly eccentricity felt like part of the place.”
The Day the War on Drugs Came to Chimayó
“On a September morning in 1999, federal agents descended on the village as part of a nationwide heroin crackdown. The bust changed nothing and everything.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring stories from Jenisha Watts, Aymann Ismail and Mary Harris, Elizabeth Kolbert, Wyatt Williams, and Jackson Wald.
Can Anyone Fix California?
“Climate. Housing. Crime. Depending on who you ask, the Golden State is a bellwether for progress, or a liberal hellscape. A journey through a land in crisis.”
So Fierce Is the World: On Loneliness and Philip Seymour Hoffman
“I believe we must reinvent loneliness in order to survive it. I have been trying to do this my whole life.”


