“Speaking to the dead can, for a short while, seem to place us outside the laws of nature—outside the rules governing time and space.”
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Posted inEditor's Pick
The Greatest Scam Ever Written
“They were believers—in astrology, in psychics, in fortune telling—who longed for transformation, salvation, fortune.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
More Than Pony Patrol: The Park Rangers of Assateague Island
The best nature writing doesn’t just evoke the outdoors; it makes you want to get up from wherever you’re reading and go be there too. You may not drop everything to go see the wild horses and undisturbed beachfront of Maryland’s largest state park, but the next time you’re nearby you’ll think of the people […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Landlord & the Tenant
“A young mother rents a house near Milwaukee. The previous tenant tells her, ‘Baby, they shouldn’t have let you move in.'”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Demon River
“On the one-year anniversary, a journalist recounts an extraordinary flood that laid waste to homes and lives—and the idea that we can control nature.”
Posted inNewsletter
A Soundtrack for Longing, What Museums Reveal, and Our Top 5
“I most love a city I can describe to you by sound or song. Landmarks created via sonic moments, rather than the fleeting nature of architecture.” —Hanif Abdurraqib Welcome to the weekend! I want to thank all the readers who have recently signed up for a Longreads membership. Members will continue to receive this Top […]
Posted inUncategorized
A Colorful Addition and the Week’s Top 5
“Humans are besotted with color and we always have been. We love it so much we will breathe it, eat it, drink it, and look at it until our eyes roll back in our heads. We will paint with it, paint the world with it, paint ourselves with it. We will go to the ends […]
Posted inNewsletter
The Uncanniest Valley (and the Rest of Our Top 5)
In this edition: Concrete memories, grief science, captive cats, relentless pain, and myth meets reality.
Posted inStory
The 19th-Century Hipster Who Pioneered Modern Sportswriting
More than a century before GoPro, Thomas Stevens’ around-the-world bike ride vaulted first-person “sports porn” into the mainstream.
