“The longer these kids stayed there, the further behind they were.”
Search results
The Ugly History of Beautiful Things: Mirrors
Mirrors are sparkly and shiny and hypnotic. They’ve fascinated us for thousands of years. And they might show us a lot more about our society’s misplaced priorities than we care to see.
Here’s What Put Thousands of Californians in the Path of a Blaze
Forest mismanagement, political corruption, and PG&E’s corporate culture created a highly combustible situation.
The 25 Most Popular Longreads Exclusives of 2019
The original reporting, personal essays, columns, and collaborations that were our most-read stories of the year.
The Age of Forever Crises
We need to learn how to talk about our irreversible mistakes. Historian Kate Brown says the first step is to resist the Chernobylization of knowledge.
The State We Are In: Neither Here, There, nor in Heaven
On vaccine privilege in America and COVID-19 inequities in India.
Science Has Yet to Prove Mold Makes us Sick
Is it the black mold causing your headaches, or is it all in your head? Don’t turn to science. It has no answers.
The Terror of Being Awake
“I thought, ‘This is it, this is how I’m going to die, right here on the table, and my family will never know what my last few hours were like because no one’s even noticing what’s going on.’”
‘I Cannot Name Any Emotion That Is Uniquely Human.’
According to primatologist Frans de Waal, we don’t like to admit that animals, especially apes, have emotions just like ours, and science has become better at studying apes’ behaviors than human ones.
Against Hustle: Jenny Odell Is Taking Her Time at the End of the World
The attention economy is killing us and the planet. Artist and writer Jenny Odell talks about why slowing down could be the only way to survive.
