“Humans are besotted with color and we always have been. We love it so much we will breathe it, eat it, drink it, and look at it until our eyes roll back in our heads. We will paint with it, paint the world with it, paint ourselves with it. We will go to the ends […]
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A “Super” Walk of Contradictions (and Our Top 5)
“To my right is one of the largest manmade toxic holes on Earth. To my left, shelves of coal-colored slag piled twenty feet high. And underfoot, ten thousand miles of poisoned shafts swimming with ghosts.” Hello from Berkeley, California. Our family loves to explore the city’s parks, where we can hike through redwood forests in […]
Elon Musk’s Shadow Rule
“How the U.S. government came to rely on the tech billionaire—and is now struggling to rein him in.”
The Race That Turned to Ruin
“Fifteen teams lifted off from Switzerland in gas ballooning’s most audacious race. Three days later, two of them drifted into Belarusian airspace—but only one would survive.”
‘How Did This Man Think He Had the Right to Adopt This Baby?’
“Army Rangers killed her parents. A Marine is raising her in America. But her Afghan family says she was taken under false pretenses.”
The Secret Weapons of Ukraine
“A journey through the strange, semiprofessional world of volunteers and foreign fighters who, one year into Russia’s invasion, are risking everything to defeat the invaders.”
Miracle in the Jungle
The race to find four children who survived a plane crash deep in the Amazon.
The Mostly True Story of America’s First Black Private Investigator
He made his name in Chicago investigating racial violence, solving crimes, and exposing corruption. But America’s first Black private detective was hiding secrets of his own.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring standout stories by Michael Hall, Sarah Aziza, Ferris Jabr, Adrian Nathan West, and Kyle Chayka.


