27 must-read stories on the making of the world’s greatest magazines.
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Posted inEditor's Pick
The Wage Warrior
A profile of Maria Elena Durazo, Los Angeles’s most powerful labor leader: Just how much influence does Durazo have in Los Angeles? Anyone who wants to build anything big—a hotel, a skyscraper, a sports stadium, a rail line—must first go through her and the County Fed, providing assurance that the project will create “good union […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Inside the World of Competitive Laughing
The writer goes to the Canadian competitive laughing championship, and examines the benefits of laughing: “We’re trying to demonstrate that laughter is a sport,” Nerenberg tells the crowd. “Why would we do that? Well, punching people in the face is a sport, poking people with sticks is a sport … so why not have a […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
College Longreads Pick: ‘Newtown Youth Sports: A New Normal’ by Isabelle Khurshudyan, University of South Carolina
Every week, Syracuse University professor Aileen Gallagher helps Longreads highlight the best of college journalism. This week’s pick comes from Isabelle Khurshudyan, a student from the University of South Carolina who wrote this story as an intern for ESPN.
Posted inMember Pick, Nonfiction
Budd & Leni
The story of Hollywood screenwriter Budd Schulberg’s unlikely collaboration with Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl.
Posted inReading List
A Kurt Cobain Reading List in Reverse Chronological Order
Every generation has that one unforgettable death that bears the question, “Where were you when ____ died?” For baby boomers, it was JFK. For the cool music-minded baby boomers, it was John Lennon. And, for Generation Xers, like myself, it was Kurt Cobain. Like generations past, you never forget where you were when a cultural […]
Posted inNonfiction, Story
The Rise and Fall of John DeLorean
“It was the end of the story of John DeLorean as part of the American Dream—how a humble kid from Detroit could rise to the very top.”
Posted inReading List
A Kurt Cobain Reading List in Reverse Chronological Order
Every generation has that one unforgettable death that bears the question, “Where were you when ____ died?” For baby boomers, it was JFK. For the cool music-minded baby boomers, it was John Lennon. And, for Generation Xers, like myself, it was Kurt Cobain. Like generations past, you never forget where you were when a cultural […]
Posted inNonfiction, Story
A Magazine’s Assignment: Find Someone ‘Ugly’
“When you get a phone call from your editor telling you he wants an in-depth profile of an ugly guy, you panic a little.”
