Nick Leiber | Longreads | March 2015 The first battery, a pile of copper and zinc discs, was invented more than 200 years ago, ushering in the electric age. Subsequent versions led to portable electronics, mobile computing, and our current love affair with smartphones (1,000 of which are shipped every 22 seconds). Now batteries are […]
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Posted inEditor's Pick
‘Mango, Mango!’ A Family, a Fruit Stand, and Survival on $4.50 a Day
Inside the “informal economy”: A new Longreads Exclusive from Douglas Haynes and Orion magazine.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction
How Apple’s Transcendent Chihuahua Killed the Revolution
Few are excited about the Apple Watch—its burdens are too easily imagined. And yet we treat it as an inevitability. How did this happen?
Posted inMember Pick, Nonfiction
A Family, a Fruit Stand, and Survival on $4.50 a Day
If it’s not for sale here, Nicaraguans say, then you can’t buy it anywhere.
Posted inNonfiction, Story
How the Emperor Became Human (and MacArthur Became Divine)
The end of divine rule in postwar Japan, and the absolute power of General MacArthur.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Secrets of the Fiction Writing Economy
There were 79 degree-granting programs in creative writing in 1975; today, there are 1,269! This explosion has created a huge source of financial support for working writers, not just in the form of lecture fees, adjunctships, and temporary appointments — though these abound — but honest-to-goodness jobs: decently paid, relatively secure compared with other industries, and often even tenured. […]
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
Immersive Reporting from the Bakken Oil Fields: A Reading List
Oil production in the Bakken region of North Dakota has topped 1 million barrels a day. The seven-year boom has flooded the area with new residents seeking their fortunes, and many journalists have also joined the labor force, sending dispatches from the new Wild West.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
How Apple’s Transcendent Chihuahua Killed the Revolution
Few are excited about the Apple Watch—its burdens are too easily imagined. And yet we treat it as an inevitability. How did this happen?
