“At 25, I saw my grandfather’s ghost. At 52, I think of what it may mean to be a ghost.”
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Posted inFeature
Best of 2025: Our Most Popular Originals of the Year
Our 10 most-read Longreads essays of 2025.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Mars Delusion
“Establishing a human colony on Mars is fraught with risk. Why are so many people obsessed with achieving it?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Thornton Wilder’s Last Play Vanished Into Thin Air. Or Did It?
“Decades after ‘The Emporium’ failed to open on Broadway in 1954, one man went on a quest to find it.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
A Portrait of the Artist as an Amazon Reviewer
“Between 2003 and 2019, Kevin Killian published almost twenty-four hundred reviews on the site. Can they be considered literature?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
My Road Trip With the Do-Gooding Cactus Smugglers
“Can poaching ever be ethical?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
George Saunders Says Ditching These Three Delusions Can Save You
“He’s as flawed a human being as anyone else, one who’s still wrestling with questions about how best to move through life with a modicum of grace and compassion.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Tom Colicchio’s Final Service
“Through hosting two decades of Top Chef, writing four books, and opening restaurants across the country, the celebrity chef never stopped showing up to cook in the kitchen of Craft, his pioneering New York restaurant. Until he decided to close it.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Desert Safety Net
“Every winter, tens of thousands of Americans migrate to public lands in the Arizona desert. For a growing number, it’s not a vacation—it’s the only housing they can afford.”
