“When the country’s mining industry collapsed, a criminal economy grew in its place, with thousands of men climbing into some of the deepest shafts in the world, searching for leftover gold.”
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The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
From writing about climate disaster and catastrophe to pieces on sleep habits, hometowns, and the heyday of a digital media empire, these five reads will take you into your weekend.
Living Through India’s Next-Level Heat Wave
India is experiencing an unprecedented heat wave. Dhruv Khullar describes what living and working in the extreme heat feels like, especially for the country’s poorest residents in and around Delhi. The women described headaches, exhaustion, dizziness, rashes, fever. The stench of the landfill—an acrid mixture of excrement and rotting trash—was sickening, they said, but the […]
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Wright Thompson, Mitch Moxley, Patrick Radden Keefe, Joshua Sokol, and Ariane Todes.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week we are sharing stories from Jessica Wilkerson, Meg Bernhard, Nicholas Hune-Brown, Jiayang Fan, and Alexander Wells.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week’s edition highlights stories by Skip Hollandsworth, Arielle Isack, J.R. Moehringer, Romina Cenisio, and Daniel Miller.
Look, Love, Laugh, and Our Top 5 of the Week
“How does visual thinking become visual design become visual communication? How does data become information become meaning? What is lost along the way? ” Many years ago, someone sent me a mango for Valentine’s Day. Upon questioning my unexpected fruit delivery, I was told that a mango is a better representation of a human heart than […]
Ten Outstanding Short Stories to Read in 2024
For the tenth year in a row, we’re kicking off the reading year with a set of short stories hand-picked by longtime contributor Pravesh Bhardwaj.
Three Years Later, Covid-19 Is Still a Health Threat. Journalism Needs to Reflect That
“Too much coverage minimizes the health risks researchers attribute to the virus.”
A Note of Holiday Thanks, and the Week’s Top 5
We’ll keep it short this week, folks. With our Best Of package marching on, we have our two latest roundups for you: Our favorite profiles of the year, and a look at the best-performing Audience Award winners of 2023. (On that note: As much as we’ve enjoyed adding the Audience Award, we’ve enjoyed the jockeying […]


