Meaghan O’Connell had a perfect pregnancy and the perfect birth plan—and then she went into labor.
Search results
The Making of Citizen Kane
“I must admit that it was intended consciously as a social document. … [but] the storyteller’s first duty is to the story.” -From the 1991 documentary “The Complete Citizen Kane,” on the Orson Welles masterpiece. The film features interviews with Welles from 1960 and 1982, as well as an interview with New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael, […]
Animals Were Harmed
An investigation reveals that the “No Animals Were Harmed” credit at the end of movies has come to mean almost nothing, and the American Humane Association has faced complaints about its lack of oversight: “Last week we almost f—king killed King in the water tank,” American Humane Association monitor Gina Johnson confided in an email […]
The Legend of Harvey Scissorhands
A brief history of Harvey Weinstein’s relationship with filmmakers and the editing room. Does he make movies better—or are Good Harvey and Bad Harvey working together? “Plenty of filmmakers have lambasted Weinstein for his savage butchery — Luc Besson, Mike Leigh, James Ivory — while others have praised Harvey for helping them find their film […]
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Below, our favorite stories of the week. Kindle and Readmill users, you can also get them as a Readlist. Sign up to receive this list free every Friday in your inbox. 1. Reaching My Autistic Son Through Disney Ron Suskind | The New York Times Magazine | March 9, 2014 | 36 minutes (9,118 words) […]
Longreads Best of 2013: The Best Story About Storytelling
In Conversation: Robert Silvers Mark Danner | New York magazine | April 2013 | 28 minutes (7,063 words) Nicholas Jackson is the digital director at Pacific Standard, and a former digital editor at Outside and The Atlantic. These year-end lists tend to be like the Academy Awards in that only work released during the […]
How Oil Money From Texas Fuels Hollywood
“The story begins in the 1930s, with Glenn McCarthy striking oil in Beaumont. McCarthy—who was the inspiration for the Jett Rink character in Edna Ferber’s Giant—used his millions to bankroll the 1949 drama ‘The Green Promise’, starring Natalie Wood and Walter Brennan. The movie was almost immediately forgotten, but McCarthy established a much-repeated role: the […]
What ‘Forever’ Means to a Teenager
At Rookie, Tavi Gevinson describes what it’s like to be between the ages of 13 and 17. Read more stories from Rookie.
The Story of H.M.: The Amnesiac Who Profoundly Changed the Way We Think About Memory
Sam Kean | The Tale of Dueling Neurosurgeons | 2014 | 12 minutes (3,008 words) For our latest Longreads Member Pick, we’re excited to share a story from The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons, a new book from science reporter Sam Kean looking at stories about the brain and the history of neuroscience. Here’s Kean: […]
Jesus Land
“They don’t know the first thing about us; they just hate us because we’re black.”

