Longreads Best of 2020: Investigative Reporting By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Feature Our top picks for investigative journalism this year.
The Secret Group Trying to Topple North Korea’s Regime By Seyward Darby Highlight Has the U.S. government already betrayed the activists seeking regime change in North Korea?
Yes, The US Government Spies on US Journalists By Krista Stevens Highlight “If we do not know what our government is doing, we cannot hold it accountable. If we do know, our enemies know too. That can be dangerous.”
COVID-19: Dispatches from Sing Sing By Krista Stevens Highlight “Sing Sing was going into quarantine. Our movement was limited. No gym. Hospital and commissary runs limited to groups of ten. Staggered seating in the mess hall.”
“What Do I Know To Be True?”: Emma Copley Eisenberg on Truth in Nonfiction, Writing Trauma, and The Dead Girl Newsroom By Jacqueline Alnes Feature “We were interested in dead girls, but so interested in them that we were trying to do the opposite of what had been done before.”
When Media Miscalculations Pivot Talented People Out of a Job By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Pivoting to video is only one of many ways media workers lose their jobs, but it’s still a horrible way.
Longreads Best of 2019: Investigative 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 investigative reporting.
From Kyiv to Kentucky By pipposts Feature California native Katya Cengel contemplates whether living in Ukraine prepared her for life in the South.
Unearthing the Story: An Interview with Peter Hessler By Frank Bures Feature The New Yorker writer describes his career’s circuitous route, from his start as a struggling fiction writer to becoming a China correspondent, and now the author of a new book about the Arab Spring.
Climate Messaging: A Case for Negativity By Rebecca McCarthy Feature Nell Zink, Joy Williams, and a different kind of climate skepticism.
Truly Seeing the River: An Interview with Writer Boyce Upholt By Aaron Gilbreath Feature Writing about the culture and beauty of the Mississippi Delta requires seeing the mighty river as more than a line of water.
Washington D.C.’s New Media Landscape Is Niche By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight General readers won’t have heard of their publications, but Washington D.C.’s trade press cater to specialist readers who pay top dollar for the beats they cover.
If I Made $4 a Word, This Article Would Be Worth $10,000 By Soraya Roberts Feature Journalism’s one percent would rather make up a fake feud than address the reality of the industry’s pay disparity, which benefits them and no one else.
How the Cosby Story Finally Went Viral — And Why It Took So Long By Longreads Feature A journalist who reported on the accusations long before they went viral wonders, “What kind of profession am I in, where stories have no logical reason for unfolding?”
The Artificial Intelligence of the Public Intellectual By Soraya Roberts Feature Today’s public intellectuals have their own version of the American Dream, where one person, on their own, can achieve anything — including being the smartest person in the room.
Reimagining Harper Lee’s Lost True Crime Novel: An Interview with Casey Cep By Adam Morgan Feature “Somewhere along the way it became very clear to me that I was writing the book she never would.”
None of the President’s Men By Soraya Roberts Feature Journalism now is a lot more fear and insecurity and a lot less corduroy and Robert Redford, but you’d never know it from what is projected.
“White” Isn’t Even Neutral When You’re Talking About Paint Colors By Michelle Weber Highlight Your systems will not protect you.
Written On the Body: One Family’s History By Krista Stevens Highlight “We, as family, got so much from their trash. I never wanted to forget that I was the janitor’s kid before I was anything else.”
Every Day I Write the Book By Michael Musto Feature At 63, Michael Musto reveals how he keeps managing to add new chapters to the consistently unfolding story of his career.
The Thrill (and the Heavy Emotional Burden) of Blazing a Trail for Black Women Journalists By Longreads Feature Dorothy Butler Gilliam remembers how exciting it was to integrate The Washington Post, but also how lonely — and often attacked — she felt as the first black woman reporter in the newsroom.
Living to Create: Talking Music and Writing With Drummer Emily Rose Epstein By Aaron Gilbreath Commentary Musician Emily Rose Epstein talks about her dual life as a rock drummer and writer.
Positivity Is Relative, Depending on Which Side of the Fighting You’re On By Michelle Weber Highlight “I was not a fallen creature in a broken world reliant on grace, but a Marine in a successful army that had all the answers.”
Shackled to Twitter By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight The pros and cons of building one’s brand on Twitter.
To Tell the Story, These Journalists Became Part of the Story By Martha Pskowski Feature In two recent books about immigrant families seeking asylum in the U.S., the authors’ attempts to help become part of their subjects’ stories.
Letters from Trenton By Thomas Swick Feature While striving to become a travel writer in the years after Watergate, Thomas Swick discovered that although writing for a newspaper was educational, there was more to be learned through romance with a foreigner.
Twenty-five Years After Breaking Brandon Teena’s Story: An Apology By Katie Kosma Highlight Journalist Donna Minkowitz realizes 25 years later she was victim to her own internalized homophobia and ignorance on trans issues when she broke the story of Brandon Teena, subject of Boys Don’t Cry.
No Journalist Should Have to Know How to Survive in Prison By Alice Driver Feature After a recent trip to Myanmar, Alice Driver considers the ever-present dangers for journalists there and in Mexico, where she lives.
Why Can’t Female Reporters Stay in the Picture? By Danielle Tcholakian Commentary Journalists who get screen time are most often men—even when the original story was told by a woman.
A Journalist Takes Stock of His Formative Years By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight An experienced reporter looks back at the hard lessons he learned reporting from Eastern Europe during a politically tumultuous time.
