Pieces from Benji Jones, Howard Bryant, Carey Baraka, Sally Jenkins, and Jeannette Cooperman.
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Best of 2024: All Our Number Five Story Picks
Every story that appeared in the number five slot in our Weekly Top 5, all in one place.
Bad Blood (Longreads’ Version): A Musical Feuds Reading List
Whether competition between artists or strife within a band, popular music features some of pop culture’s messiest rivalries.
All That We’ve Lost
“One year on from the start of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s still too early to explain all the whys of that which has been taken from us. We still need to name the what—loved ones, but also jobs, relationships, big breaks, last chances—and the what is vast.”
I was Hypnotized as a Teen. Was it Dangerous?
Each year, comedy hypnotists bring thousands of willing participants on stage to be hypnotized in front of crowds—harmless fun or risky business?
‘Writing Was a Way to Have My Say’: An Interview with Author Sejal Shah
“I didn’t know at first what I was doing. I was just trying to represent the inside of the feeling.”
A Dangerous Solo Hike, the Vanishing of Aging Parents, and Our Top 5
“I came to a shack with a small, white-haired man inside. I assumed he had been guarding Devil’s Bridge for centuries. I answered his riddles three and he gestured for me to sign in. At the end of his hand was a damp pile of papers and a pen on a gray string. Like most […]
‘Our Stories Are Still Filtered Through Whiteness’
“White people still drive the narrative about Asian Americans. We have yet to have control over our own stories.”
In Living Color: A Prismatic Reading List on Pigment, Paint, and Perception
Six stories celebrating color in all its beauty.
The Universe, T-Swift, and This Week’s Top 5
“Growing up it was drilled in me that no word should touch the ground. Words are to be revered no matter what those words might mean. Once my Nana insisted my entire room be reorganized because my bookshelf was stationed such that when I went to bed the backs of my feet faced the books […]


