“When my father-in-law was growing up in Baltimore and misbehaved in Hebrew school with his friends, their teachers would calmly unbutton their cuffs and roll up their sleeves, revealing their tattoos from Auschwitz. I’ve seen worse, the tattoos said. Or perhaps, This could happen to you.” What does your tattoo mean? It’s a question often asked of […]
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Something About the Present
“And so I remember that it’s this moment I want, before it becomes the next, where anything could happen and anything could not.”
Land Ownership Makes No Sense
“The earth is a shared inheritance, and profiting off a common resource is just wrong.”
My Time Machine
“The rules of historians are clear: put things in context, be dispassionate, and most of all, never say ‘we’ when you talk about the past.”
Why are so Many Guys Obsessed With Master and Commander?
“20 years after its release, the mildly successful historical nautical drama has become an inescapable hit with a certain type of movie fan.”
The Last of the Bougainvillea Years
“A poet from Tripoli was displaced in Dubai for a decade, but suddenly it felt like home as another move, this time across the globe, was imminent.”
“Diana’s Piano” And All The Cats I’ve Loved And Lost
“The years I’ve spent with these cats—with Detective in our house, with Walker in a small apartment, with Mango on the porch next door—is worth all the feelings of loss.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring stories from Charlotte Bailey, Hanif Abdurraqib, Taylar Dawn Stagnar, Patrick Madden, and Kevin Chroust.
A Year in Reading: Power to the People
Incorrigible, insightful, inspiring: the incredible people of 2024.


