“Your doctors tell you that you have your whole life to recover, but also that you have a window of just six months when your brain is most primed to relearn everything you’ve forgotten. So, no pressure. Your brain can’t regenerate the neurons it’s lost. Use ’em or lose ’em. You had no idea your […]
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The Tragedy of Jayquan McKenley
From the current New York issue’s package on drill music comes this urgent, saddening profile of Jayquan McKenley, a sweethearted teenager and burgeoning artist whose murder sparked a new wave of handwringing around the rap subgenre. Even to drill’s defenders, it seemed clear that social media had sped up a cycle of retaliatory shootings; the Bronx’s […]
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week’s edition highlights stories by Chris Walker, Katie Prout, Tim Requarth, Michael Schulman, and Celia Bell.
Secrets of the Christmas Trade
“Turf wars. Protection money. Scientology. And my boss, a man who’s half-convinced he really is Santa.”
On Resilience and Our Top 5
“It is hard, I think, to learn as an adult. This is not some profound statement. It just is. But it is not hard because of the fact of it; it is hard because learning anything means learning again how to learn. It’s not that riding a bike is hard; it’s that learning is hard. […]
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times Magazine Staff, Melissa del Bosque, Nitasha Tiku, Sarah Gilman, and Tift Merritt.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Showcasing stories from Ryu Spaeth, Kit Chellel, Dave Eggers, Holly Haworth, and John Semley.
Editor’s Roundtable: Cities, And How They Used to be Good (Podcast)
This week, Longreads editors discuss stories in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The CT Mirror, and Engadget.
The Joy of Sweat and the Week’s Top 5
“To move in spin class only for the sake of moving, of the joyful challenge itself, of sweating and pushing and dancing, is cool water in my throat. To be loved, simply for showing up, is pure golden sun in my chest.” Happy Friday and welcome to (unofficial) autumn! If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere […]
A Box of Meat and $100 For Your Life
“Workers who worked Monday through Saturday without missing a day were given a bonus of $50, later raised to $100, which was accompanied by a box of meat valued at $200 to $300.”


