Suddenly, it feels like the tail-end of summer. Where I live, that makes folks scramble.
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What Happened to Heather Mayer?
“Police ruled Heather Mayer’s death a suicide. Her mother set out to prove them wrong and uncovered an escalating tale of violence.”
A New Series, An Unknown History, and the Week’s top 5
“Minstrelsy shows you one hand, convinces you of one thing—the thing you can see most vividly—while something else works behind the scenes. That something is something only those who are tapped into a specific kind of pain, a specific kind of quest for freedom that has failed before but is not worth abandoning, might understand.” […]
The Dubious Rise of Imposter Syndrome
“The impostor begins to do everything possible to prevent being discovered in her self-perceived deficiencies.”
What to Know Before You Go
A conversation with Lavinia Spalding, editor of The Best Women’s Travel Writing, and our recent picks.
Turf War
Seeing alternatives makes you realize how ubiquitous turfgrass is—though anyone who’s ever wrestled with their own Kentucky bluegrass doesn’t need to be reminded.
Ian MacKaye’s Worn-Out Sneakers
Work-ethic wisdom from Fugazi and Ibram X. Kendi.
A Work of Love
“Before gay marriage was legal, illustrator John Megahan was called to work on a revolutionary secret project: bringing to life, in painstaking scientific detail, the queer lives of the animal world.”
I Asked ChatGPT To Control My Life, and It Immediately Fell Apart
“After 35 years of living in relative control of my decisions, I had decided to see what would happen if I asked AI to control my life instead.”
Best of 2025: The Stories You Missed
In a year of exceptional reading, these overlooked stories refused to let us go.

