In the context of some recent reads on psychedelic drugs, Laura Miller looks at Michael Pollan’s new book, How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. In it, Pollan says that drugs such as psilocybin and LSD got a bad rap after some […]
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Posted inEditor's Pick
Portugal’s Radical Drugs Policy Is Working. Why Hasn’t the World Copied It?
Portugal’s drug epidemic started in the 1980s, and HIV and overdoses skyrocketed. After decriminalizing all substances in 2001, the country started focusing on harm-reduction instead of punishment, but it was cultural shifts that truly improved the country’s situation. Is Portugal’s success too culturally bound to work elsewhere?
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Story
Prayers to Lucia
When a high-risk pregnancy jeopardizes their eyesight, Heather Quinn explores the expectations of motherhood and finds common ground with a patron saint.
Posted inNonfiction
We Still Don’t Know How to Navigate the Cultural Legacy of Eugenics
From abortion to immigration, a long-debunked scientific movement still casts long, confusing shadows over our most fraught debates.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
Old Dudes On Skateboards
The death of his life-long skateboarding friend prompts Aaron Gilbreath to get back on his board — at 44, with his toddler daughter in tow.
Posted inNonfiction, Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Lyz Lenz, Chris Sweeney, Megan Zahneis and Jack Stripling, Davey Alba, and Christopher Borrelli.
Posted inNonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes, Science & Nature
It was Mr. Henthorn on the Cliff with a Swift Shove
Oh, your first wife died in a freak accident too?
Posted inCulture, Essays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
I Had To Leave My Mother So I Could Survive
Elisabet Velasquez reckons with a lifetime of disharmony with her religious, mentally ill mother.
Posted inNonfiction
Father’s Little Helper
While under the influence of Valium, Scott Korb reflects on all the fathers he could have been and the father he has become.
Posted inStory
The Final Five Percent
If traumatic brain injuries can impact the parts of the brain responsible for personality, judgment, and impulse control, maybe injury should be a mitigating factor in criminal trials — but one neuroscientist discovers that assigning crime a biological basis creates more issues than it solves.
