Looking for a Greener Death By Michelle Weber Highlight Aquamation is more environmentally-friendly than cremation and has a growing number of supporters. So why is it mostly illegal?
Anthony Bourdain and the Missing Piece By Ian Frisch Feature With magic, the goal is to give someone something they can carry around with them for a while.
Life After Life: Offering Dignity to Fellow Prisoners Through Hospice Care By Krista Stevens Highlight On the lowest paid, but perhaps most rewarding job at The California Medical Facility — a medium-security prison in Vacaville, CA.
Bang and Vanish By Janice Gary Feature A trip to Key West becomes an unexpected journey involving a sacred bird, a beloved dog, and the challenge of coming to terms with the nature of fate.
Drowning In a River of Murky Thought By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight After his high school friend drowns, a young academic’s mind leads him down a dark path of conspiratorial explanations.
But Where Will We Put Uncle Larry? By Krista Stevens Highlight When you bury a body, it stays in the cemetery. Cremation presents a whole new issue: where to store the deceased.
How to Write a Memoir While Grieving By Nicole Chung Feature Nicole Chung contemplates loss, adoption, and working on a book her late father won’t get to see.
Grief is a Jumble Word By Ken Otterbourg Feature Ken Otterbourg contemplates love and loss and what we remember when we try to forget.
What Happened Onboard the ‘Nautilus’? By Michelle Legro Highlight May Jeong searches for answers after the death of her friend, journalist Kim Wall.
Stewards of the Blood By Aaron Gilbreath Feature One California woman tries to understand the code of honor that young men live by in blood feuds.
Fast or Slow: What’s the Best Way to Die? By Sari Botton Highlight Sometimes death takes a torturously slow, scenic route.
My Daughter Died, But I’m Still Mothering Her By Jacqueline Dooley Feature Jacqueline Dooley recalls her difficult transition from being a mother with earthly duties, to becoming one with more spiritual concerns for a teenage daughter with terminal cancer.
Longreads Best of 2017: Crime Reporting By Longreads Reading List We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in crime reporting.
This is How You Say Goodbye By Lillian Ann Slugocki Feature After a series of losses, Lillian Slugocki tries to make sense of death — and life in the wake of others’ passing.
Ushering My Father to a (Mostly) Good Death By Karen Brown Feature Karen Brown recalls conspiring with her father in his final weeks to find some humor in the pain.
The Lost Genocide By Longreads Feature Why the United Nations may never be able to prosecute the Rohingya genocide.
Finally Seeing the Forest for the Trees By Maura Kelly Feature After a spate of trauma and loss, Maura Kelly retreats to the Hudson Valley where she is converted into a ‘nature person.’
The Dead Man Fund By Longreads Feature How the world’s worst investor fleeced clients who couldn’t complain.
The Aftermarket for (Human) Spare Parts By Pam Mandel Highlight “What they are doing is profiting from the sale of humans.”
How Much is Too Much to Save a Dying Cat? By s.e. smith Feature A series of losses prompts s.e. smith to wonder why, if it’s inevitable, we tend to view death as failure.
My Half-Sister’s Half a Life By Longreads Feature Jeannie’s father never spoke of his daughter who had died at 16, the mysterious half-sister who shared her name.
When You’re Broken by Breaking News By Danielle Tcholakian Commentary If reporting becomes excessive, it can do more harm than good.
The Unforgettable Edie Windsor By Danielle Tcholakian Commentary It’s said about a lot of people, but true of only a few: There was something special about Edie.
Atomic City By Justin Nobel Feature On January 3, 1961, a nuclear reactor the size of a small grain silo exploded in the Idaho desert, causing one of the only recorded nuclear fatalities on U.S. soil.
The Unknowable Diana, 20 Years On: A Reading List By Erin Blakemore Reading List Why were we personally affected by a woman few knew and even fewer ever understood?
American Sphinx By Colin Dickey Feature Civil War monuments in the North erased an emancipated Black population. But the Sphinx looked to a new world: an integrated Africa and America.
Hilary Mantel’s Eulogy for the Unfinished Diana By Michelle Legro Highlight “As Diana was a collective creation,” Mantel writes at the Guardian, “she was also a collective possession.”
What the Future of Death Looks Like By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Commentary A look at the process of alkaline hydrosis, a more eco-friendly type of cremation, and the growing movement behind it.
Why the Most Beautiful Poems Defy Understanding By Krista Stevens Highlight “In a poem, we feel what is there, but also what is not.”
‘This Place, This Moment, Unplanned’: On Surviving a Heart Attack By Krista Stevens Highlight Jeff Sharlet on how recovering from a life-threatening event takes place moment by moment.
