Why would a tenure-track professor find himself selling his plasma to make rent? A story about debt in the academic world.
Search results
Posted inNonfiction, Profiles & Interviews, Story
Making Sense of Our Compulsions
Sharon Begley explores the behaviors we engage in to cope with unbearable anxiety.
Posted inBlog Post, Discussions, Uncategorized
Could You Afford a $400 Emergency? Neal Gabler Says His Financial Confession ‘Was Not an Easy One to Write’
If there are two things Americans are good at, it’s mishandling our finances, and using Twitter to judge those who are in worse shape than us. Thus we have the perfect Atlantic cover story this week—a refreshingly honest and desparingly relatable personal essay by writer Neal Gabler about his many financial mistakes, as well as […]
Posted inBooks, Reading List
Longreads Best of 2016: Under-Recognized Books
We asked our contributors to tell us about a few books they felt deserved more recognition in 2016. Here they are.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Claimed
After Fidel Castro took power in 1959 he nationalized the Cuban economy, seizing a wide variety of assets, including sugar mills, power plants, and hotels. Some of these assets belonged to American citizens doing business in Cuba. Seth Stevenson traces the strange history of these contested holdings, which have grown to a collective worth of […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Assistant Economy
The low-paid labor that keeps our most accomplished artists and leaders running on time.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Shut-Ins and the Sharing Economy
With Alfred, you no longer have to open the door for the Instacart delivery: A worker comes into your apartment and stocks food in your fridge. You don’t hand off your dirty undies to a Washio messenger; Alfred puts the laundered undies in the drawer. This all happens by paying your Alfred $99 a month, […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Technology for Problem Sleepers
Having trouble sleeping? In The New Yorker, Patricia Marx writes about the economy of slumber, offering a lively survey of current gadgets and expensive equipment designed to get you a night of rest, and she nestles it snug as a bug with a primer on the growing science of sleep. From deprivation to natural cycles to oversleep, […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Strange Plight of YouTube’s ‘Middle Class’
Gaby Dunn on the bleak economics of internet fame.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Shut-In Economy
The “sharing” economy has enabled on-demand everything, but there are drawbacks to a lifestyle where one can have all their needs met with the click of a button.
