This edition highlights reading about messages in bottles, public benches, infinity, a series of books about everything, and pay-to-play orchestras.
Places Journal
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Disappearance of the Public Bench
“Benches are microcosms of an expansive debate about who belongs in urban public spaces. When they are removed or made uninviting, we lose more than just a place to rest.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Warehouse, in Plain Sight
“That concrete box off the freeway wasn’t designed for storage so much as capture—of markets, workers, and, now, people detained by immigration agents. It’s a disappearing machine. We need to see it clearly.”
Posted inTop 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
In this edition: metal medicine, hyped humanoids, carnival crossroads, divine defiance, and optimization obsession.
Posted inEditor's Pick
A Theology of Smuggling
“In the early 1980s, in Tucson, activists and religious leaders joined forces to protect refugees at the U.S.-Mexico border. Their collaboration galvanized the Sanctuary Movement.”
Posted inReading List
Map Room: A Radical Reading List on Cartographic Power, Perspective, and Possibility
Seven stories celebrating our fascination with maps.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Altadena: Four Stories
For three weeks in January, the Eaton Fire raced through the small community of Altadena, California, destroying more than 9,000 buildings and killing seventeen people. Afterward, we invited four writers, all longtime local residents, to share memories, and photographs, of what burned, and what didn’t.
Posted inFeature
Best of 2024: The Stories You Missed
It’s been a busy year: Here are some noteworthy pieces that may have passed you by.
Posted inCuration
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring stories by Jeannette Cooperman, Jackson Arn, Andrew Hui, Myriam Gurba, and Simon Hattenstone.