“You could spend a lot of time with Seth and never know he struggles to hear; that his left ear hears at about 30 percent below the average range and his right one, 95 percent below.”
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The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week we are featuring stories from Liam Taylor, Piers Gelly, Christopher Cox, Anna Russell, and Lisa Russ Spaar.
The Cat Who Woke Me Up
“Even though my brain is confused and I’m struggling, always struggling, to see if my writing is good, I still want to write. And the writing that matters the most to me isn’t about Alzheimer’s. It’s about a cat.”
The Unbearable Loudness of Chewing
“Why do some people find certain sounds intolerable? And why has it taken so long for scientists to get even a preliminary answer?”
Does Anyone Still Hitchhike?
“Traveling by thumb isn’t popular anymore. Some say it should be.”
The Heroines Who Take On The Harm
“I came to West Virginia looking for harm. I found resilience, the kind that keeps people alive, the kind that seems nearly miraculous, and the kind that is often overlooked.”
The Plot Thickens (and the Week’s Top 5)
“Accommodating the dead, like accommodating the living, has always entailed a head-on collision with the awkward reality that we have a finite amount of physical space.” Okay, yes, sure, maybe you weren’t expecting a quote about dead bodies to kick off your Friday morning. But I assure you that our new feature, “Disneyland of the […]
On Reflection
“Angelina Mazza spends a lot of time looking at her body. And yet, she explains, she’s never truly seen it.”


