American food supplies are increasingly channeled through a handful of big companies: Amazon, Walmart, FreshDirect, Blue Apron. What do we lose when local supermarkets go under? A lot — and Kevin Kelley wants to stop that.
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In San Francisco, Making a Living From Your Billionaire Neighbor’s Trash
Amid the mansions and new tech money, an entire economy has developed to gather discarded items and resell them for a few hundred dollars a week, if they’re lucky. “It’s a civic service as I see it,” said Nick Marzano, who publishes a magazine about San Francisco trash pickers. “Rather than this stuff going to […]
How Southern Cities Are Joining the Knowledge Economy
Greenville, South Carolina has revitalized its city center by incubating start-ups. Can other Southern cities do the same?
On a Wild Patch of Mississippi Soil
Camping a wooded island along the lower Mississippi River introduces one writer to a land of legend and wildness.
The 25 Most Popular Longreads Exclusives of 2019
The original reporting, personal essays, columns, and collaborations that were our most-read stories of the year.
Against Hustle: Jenny Odell Is Taking Her Time at the End of the World
The attention economy is killing us and the planet. Artist and writer Jenny Odell talks about why slowing down could be the only way to survive.
Tea, Biscuits, and Empire: The Long Con of Britishness
The soft-focus Britain of Downton Abbey bears little resemblance to the real Britain collapsing under the weight of racism, austerity, and COVID-19. As Brexit plods on, it’s time for an honest reckoning of the history and future of this outsize little island.
Beyond Growth
Imagining an economy based in environmental reality
We’re Not All in This Together
When the only way to be a real community is to be apart, it quickly becomes obvious who is out for themselves.
How the Pacheco Family Pivoted From Baking Bread to Burying the Bodies
“For now, though, he has no plans to become a baker again.”
