Treating Drug Epidemics Requires More Than Changes in Law By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight How Portugal combats its drug epidemic with decriminalization, social services, and new ways of thinking.
Longreads Best of 2017: Sports Writing By Longreads Reading List We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year. Here is the best in sports writing.
Longreads Best of 2017: All of Our No. 1 Story Picks By Longreads Reading List Here’s every story that was chosen as No. 1 in our weekly Top 5 email.
Portland, Oregon, Where the Law Protects Car Thieves Instead of Peoples’ Cars By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Thanks to wacky laws, Portland, Oregon has the third highest car theft rate in America.
Climate Change and Social Disorder in Central Africa By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight As climate change dries Central Africa’s massive Lake Chad, extremists and militant governments distrupt the lives of the tribes who once made their life here.
The New Face of Military Recruitment By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight The Army is working to increase the number of enlistments, and eliminate unethical recruiting practices.
The Cost of Being a Regular Ol’ American Place By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight What does it mean for the Midwest to think of itself as a featureless land full of average Americans?
Joan Didion and the Nature of Narrative By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Assessing Joan Didion’s legacy reveals a fascination with the nature of narrative that often supersedes the author’s subjects.
Albania’s Blood Feuds By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight In northern Albania, vengeance is justice, but does it get people something besides more pain?
The Planet Is Pissed and Wants You Outta Here By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Massive volcanic events are the cause of most global mass extinctions. When will the next one destroy life on earth?
Feeling the Wind in Their Beards By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight For the Sikh Motorcycle Club Of The Northeast, riding is centering, creates brotherhood and reaffirms their commitment to Sikh values.
The Business of Building a Country’s Brand By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight A whole sector of the marketing industry shapes stories about nations and cities to shape our opinions about place.
Can Portland’s River Cleanup Correct Environmental Injustice? By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight The Willamette River, a superfund site, was once Portland’s lifeblood. A massive cleanup project could restore it for the communities of color that had long relied on it for food, work, and leisure.
The Strange Art World of Craigslist By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight The artists who use Craigslist to find subjects and ideas have found a willing group of participants unfazed by unusual encounters.
Searching for Poet Frank Stanford By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Traveling to Arkansas to search for mythic poet Frank Stanford.
Idaho Conservatives Are Trying to Move the American GOP Further Right By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight For the ultra-right wing Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, today’s GOP isn’t Republican enough.
Reflections of a Lifelong Metalhead By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight One aging Sabbath fan assesses the power and necessity of loud, dark music.
Nestlé Is Sucking the World’s Aquifers Dry By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight The multinational corporation is gradually privatizing a natural resource.
Keeping Black Farm Families Connected to the Land in Michigan By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Blueberry growing is popular around tiny Covert, Michigan, but how do these farmers of color keep their kids farming the land?
The Dangers of Being a Tiny Island By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight After a few rich outsiders bought the Island of Eigg, the islanders bought their island back.
How Did the Blues Become the Blues? By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight In one simple sentence in 1914, Columbus Bragg, an African American writer, helped codify the Blues genre, though he’s largest forgotten.
Junk Food is 21st Century Imperialism By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight The first in a New York Times’ series about global obesity looks at the place of processed foods in Brazil.
Civilization Was Supposed to Make Our Lives Better, Right? By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Cultivating crops led to permanent settlements, but also greed and exploitation. Was it all worth it?
Mothering Is Not the Enemy of Creative Work By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Journalist Erika Hayasaki uses science to show how motherhood can improve creativity.
A Long, Dark Night of the Soul at Donald Trump’s Childhood Home By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Alexander Nazaryan spends a night at Trump’s first home in Queens to see if it can tell him anything about the president.
The Whistleblower in the Family By Aaron Gilbreath Feature After her father was arrested for fraud, Pearl Abraham began the the slow, painful process of unraveling her Hasidic family ties.
Building a New Society for Black Americans, First in Mississippi By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight A movement in Jackson, Mississippi is working to remake the way the city governs, feeds, and runs itself in order to serve the black community.
Welcome Nowhere: The Plight of the Rohingya Refugees By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Myanmar’s Rohingya people escape systematic discrimination at home only to suffer depredations in search of new homes.
Why Did a Young Woman Broadcast Her Death? By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight An 18-year-old Parisian woman streams her suicide on social media.
Are Arizona’s Defunded Public Schools the Future of American Education? By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Arizona’s struggling public schools offer a glimpse of what America’s public schools might look like under Betsy DeVos’ national voucher program.
