“They’re a little eccentric” is a phrase I suspect most of us have heard used to describe a certain kind of memorable person. For me, it evokes my childhood dentist — an elderly man who favored colorful bow ties and humming loudly as he worked, and who once wagged his finger in my face and […]
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Posted inNewsletter
Abandoned Music Dreams and The Week’s Top 5
“It felt like a homecoming but in retrospect seems more like a goodbye: a last great musical act before leaving that period of my life. It felt romantic, anyway, to record in a barn. We set the drums next to the tractor, tried to coax the chickens into cooing for the microphone, and had a […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Everything You Never Knew About Competitive Eating
“You know how many times of the day I answer questions about poop?” an absolutely jacked professional eater asks me. “Every single interview.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
‘Where the Bats Hung Out’: How a Basement Hideaway at UC Berkeley Nurtured a Generation of Blind Innovators
For decades, an underground hideaway at UC Berkeley’s Moffitt Library — better known as “The Cave” — gave rise to a generation of blind leaders, including Joshua Miele, a MacArthur genius grant winner who now builds adaptive technologies at Amazon. The Cave was where iron sharpened iron, academically — tricks for surviving Berkeley were as […]
Posted inUncategorized
Taming Water, Embracing Fire, and the Week’s Top 5
“Deep in the valley below us, in the middle distance, gaped the great black cauldron of Litli-Hrútur, its insides awash in a churning fiery stew. We stood in silence on the observation mound with our hands on our hips, faces cast in childish masks of wonder and awe. ” This week, we have two beautiful essays […]
Posted inTop 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week we are featuring stories from Piper French, Jordan Blumetti, Zing Tsjeng, Ryan Cantú, and Luke Winkie.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Man Who Broke Bowling
“For nearly every other bowling mortal, the idea of a comeback would have been an exercise in self-delusion. But Belmonte, 39, has never conformed to expectations.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
How to Build a Better Motivational Speaker
“The upstart motivator Jesse Itzler wants to reform his profession—while also rising to the top.”
Posted inArts & Culture, Books, Feature, Profiles & Interviews, Story
“I Am In Between”: A Q&A with Sorayya Khan
Author Sorayya Khan on what it means to grow up between two cultures, and on mothering and being mothered in a global world.
Posted inFeature
A Year in Reading: Power to the People
Incorrigible, insightful, inspiring: the incredible people of 2024.
