Longreads editors discuss stories in Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, ESPN, Kotaku, and The Globe and Mail.
reality television
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Featured, Nonfiction, Story
I’m Not Queer to Make Friends
By Trying on the Role of Reality TV Villain, Logan Scherer Confronts His Gay Shame
Posted inArts & Culture, Featured, Highlight, Nonfiction, Quotes
Queer Eye Is an Upbeat Documentary of a Failing Social Order
How a hard-not-to-love show glosses over the powers that produced its makeover subjects.
Posted inNonfiction
When ‘The Real World’ Gave Up on Reality
The true story of the exact moment in the mid-Nineties when reality television morphed from its best self to its worst.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Is ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ the Most Radical Show on TV?
In her first cover piece for the New York Times magazine, Jenna Wortham profiles RuPaul, making note of the ways in which he — and his 9-year-old reality competition TV show — have had to evolve along with shifting understandings of gender, and the politics around it.
Posted inArts & Culture, Featured, Nonfiction, Quotes
Miles to Go Before You Sleep
“When the safety crew came to retrieve him, Brandon was adamant he’d been underground for two full days. In reality, he’d only been below for twelve hours.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Shot in the Dark
Spending six days in a cave without any light means hallucinations, hypothermia, and the potential for fatal falls. Why would anyone volunteer for one of the most extreme reality shows ever?
Posted inArts & Culture, Nonfiction, Profiles & Interviews, Unapologetic Women
Conservative Values, Meet Drag Values
RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Sasha Velour responds to a divisive political climate by celebrating beauty, brains, and belonging.
Posted inFeatured, Nonfiction, Quotes
The Cultural Revolution of Anthony Bourdain
How the chaotic ’70s shaped the food writer’s literary trajectory.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Reality TV and the Rise of Celebrity-CEOs
Sometimes it seems like everyone’s selling something. They’re selling their jewelry. They’re selling their book, selling their snack line, their natural cosmetics, their Etsy shop and blog and, ultimately, themselves. In The New Yorker‘s 2015 Style Issue, Lizzie Widdicombe writes about Bethenny Frankel, who turned her slot on The Real Housewives of New York City into […]