“A reporter returns to investigate her past and unravel the legacy of the secretive Zero Units.”
investigative reporting
Posted inNonfiction
‘Do You Know These Women?’
Sarah Souli | November 2022 | 13 minutes (3,781 words) This is an excerpt from The Atavist’s issue no. 133, “A Matter of Honor.” The story was completed with generous support from the Incubator for Media Education and Development, a nonprofit journalistic organization founded in 2018 with an exclusive donation from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. “Just by being there, […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
How America’s Gun Laws Are Failing Domestic Violence Victims
“From 2017 through 2020, Reveal identified at least 110 intimate partners and others who were fatally shot by offenders using weapons they weren’t allowed to possess under federal and, in some cases, state law.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Incalculable Cost of Cheap Chicken—and the Hidden Industry That Shoulders It
“The exact number of COVID-19 deaths connected to poultry plants may never be known, but one thing is clear: the Latinx population in North Carolina has been hit hard by the pandemic.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Did Paying a Ransom for a Stolen Magritte Painting Inadvertently Fund Terrorism?
“Modern art crime, like the arms trade, still thrives in the shadow of global conflict, which gives rise to criminal networks that make from the detritus of war immensely profitable commodities.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Man Who Didn’t Invent Flamin’ Hot Cheetos
“He’s now retired in his early 60s, after a full career climbing the corporate ladder. Montañez made it, from rags to riches, from factory floor to corporate suite. He just didn’t make Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Poisoned
“Hundreds of workers at a Tampa lead smelter have been exposed to dangerous levels of the neurotoxin. The consequences have been profound.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
My Friend Jay
Matthew Stanmyre’s childhood best friend was shot and killed when he was 16. Twenty-one years later, he searches for answers for why he died.
Posted inEditor's Pick
How the School Reopening Debate Is Tearing One of America’s Most Elite Suburbs Apart
Noreen Malone recounts the very public and heated debate around school reopening between a teachers union and wealthy, liberal parents in a Boston suburb.
Posted inNonfiction
Longreads Best of 2020: Investigative Reporting
Our top picks for investigative journalism this year.