A mysterious YouTube video gave thousands of people a place to breathe. Then it vanished.
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Posted inNonfiction
Best of 2023: Personal Essays
Our favorite personal essays published this year include stories on loss, Indigenous community, video games, caring for aging relatives, and the fear of missing love.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Dead Mall Society
“Standing in the wreckage of these spaces unlocks a sensation people often crave, but can’t name.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The School Shootings Were Fake. The Terror Was Real
“The inside story of the teenager whose ‘swatting’ calls sent armed police racing into hundreds of schools nationwide—and the private detective who tracked him down.”
Posted inTop 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
An unjust police killing. Nature reclamation in the fossil fuel era. Surviving a bear attack. The underbelly of the antiquities trade. And for a well-earned dessert, the legacy of the world’s first breakout video game. 1. Police Killed His Son. Prosecutors Charged the Teen’s Friends With His Murder Meg O’Connor | The Appeal & Phoenix […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Loneliness of the Junior College Esports Coach
After a year of loss and grief, Madison Marquer signed up to lead a team of gamers at a community college in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Brendan I. Koerner chronicles the journey. By early 2021, Walsh had gathered ample evidence to prove that esports could bring in as many as 20 Âstudent-athletes per year and boost the […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Jason Brassard Spent His Lifetime Collecting the Rarest Video Games. Until the Heist.
The porn trilogy for Nintendos. Atari games from the 1980s. Pristine nostalgia, potentially worth millions, all went missing one night: The contents of that safe had taken him nearly 30 years to acquire, a few titles only a handful of people had ever seen. The safe itself he’d bought secondhand from a local real estate […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
They Lost Their Kids to Fortnite
“A group of Canadian parents say their kids are so addicted to the video game Fortnite that they’ve stopped eating, sleeping and showering.”
Posted inCuration, Nonfiction, Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, our editors recommend notable features and essays by Jackie Flynn Mogensen, Justin Heckert, Gloria Liu, Sharon Levy, and Mychal Denzel Smith.
