“I am driving and someone I love trusts me enough to fall asleep in the passenger seat. I am older and I don’t have an answer to are we there yet. I am a father and I poke my child’s knee to keep them up with me. I am driving home. I’ve never done that, you […]
Search results
Best of 2025: All Our Number Five Story Picks
Every story we selected for the number five slot in our weekly newsletter, in a handy digest.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week we are sharing stories from Thomas Hale, Sam Edwards, Kim Cross, Jaq Evans, and Matti Friedman
‘Stay Away From Him. He’s Dangerous.’
“For years, a mysterious figure preyed on gay men in Atlanta. People on the streets called him the Handcuff Man—but the police knew his real name.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Mstyslav Chernov, Deborah Cohen, Marina Benjamin, Johanna Hoffman, and Gabriella Paiella.
Waterworld
Still or sparkling or artesian or glacier? Martin Riese, America’s first water sommelier, believes that the more we think about what we drink, the more we’ll care about the planet.
The Excesses of Compassion: A Reading List on Fallen Gurus
Stories about spiritual teachers who lose their way.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Here are five stories to kickstart your weekend of reading: Seyward starts us off with story close to her heart, set in her hometown of Greenville, North Carolina; Krista shares a remembrance of the longest siege in modern history; Peter recommends a deeply reported piece on Andrew Luck; Cheri takes us behind the scenes of […]
What’s in a Name, and Our Top 5
“At home, I was Spanish. At school, American. When mom got angry at us, the ultimate insult would be spewed: ‘Ay! That is so American!’ But outside of the house, while in the presence of my peers, I wanted that to be true. Being so American would mean I would be allowed to wear shorts to school. I would […]
The Legendary Band Who Got the Beat (and Our Top 5)
“They were both powerful images that the bands chose themselves, which subverted the idea of how women should market their music. There was also the idea that the women wanted to conceal themselves, whether with face masks or mud, to keep a part hidden, especially from a music industry that wanted women to reveal themselves, […]


