Welcome to the New Transnational Paradigm Highlight The decline of national political authority requires a new transnational political system. First we have to stop denying the problem.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Lizzie Presser, Kathleen McGrory, Bryan Curtis, Anna Merlan, and Amalia Illgner.
To Be a Lexicographer Is to Surrender to Folly Highlight On the never-ending, unattainable quest to create the perfect English dictionary.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Jason Fagone, Joe Zadeh, Victoria Myers, Andrew Dickson, and Steve Almond.
To Live and Die in Utopian New Zealand Highlight How the super rich like Peter Thiel are buying land in New Zealand to survive the apocalypse.
The Only Downside to Lower Infant-Mortality Rates? All Those Baby Books Highlight When you don’t need to worry about the big things, you can start obsessing over the small ones.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Emily Chang, Kiera Feldman, Motoko Rich, David J. Unger, and Nicole Chung.
The Digital Age Won’t Kill Paper Highlight Just like handwriting survived long after the introduction of print, paper is still very much part of our internet-era economy.
Who Benefits from Homeless Relocation Programs? Highlight Many American cities offer the homeless free bus tickets to move somewhere, but do these relocation programs do vunerable populations more harm than good?
Treating Drug Epidemics Requires More Than Changes in Law Highlight How Portugal combats its drug epidemic with decriminalization, social services, and new ways of thinking.
Welcome to Parliament! Bachelors Can Only Wear Brown Shoes Every Other Tuesday Highlight What changes politically if Parliament moves to a modern, inclusive space from one steeped in sexist, classist history?
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Luke O’Brien, Jen Gann, Tom Lamont, Norimitsu Onishi, and Sam Knight.
The Sandwich Whisperer of Victoria Street Highlight The art of sandwich-making requires “tenacity, knowledge, know-how, flair.”
The Business of Building a Country’s Brand Highlight A whole sector of the marketing industry shapes stories about nations and cities to shape our opinions about place.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Roxane Gay, Katherine Heiny, Alexandra Starr, Dionne Searcey, and Anna Silman.
Scientific Conferences Are Filled with Spies Highlight The world’s intelligence agencies send operatives to scientific conferences to collect information and protect themselves.
The Dangers of Being a Tiny Island Highlight After a few rich outsiders bought the Island of Eigg, the islanders bought their island back.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Rana Dasgupta, Whitney Joiner, Jesse Barron, Kiese Laymon, and David Roth.
Why Did a Young Woman Broadcast Her Death? Highlight An 18-year-old Parisian woman streams her suicide on social media.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Bee Wilson, Seyward Darby, Wil S. Hylton, Greg Milner, and Annie Dillard.
If Clean Food Is for Everyone, Why Are Its Gurus All Young, Pretty Women? Highlight How gendered marketing tropes continue to fuel the latest lifestyle fads.
Innocence Abroad Commentary “I’d had no idea that we had ever had to define our identities at all, because to me, white Americans were born fully formed, completely detached from any sort of complicated past.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Abrahm Lustgarten, Lois Beckett, Julia O’Malley, Alice Driver, and Sarah Jeong.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week Weekly Top 5 This week, we’re sharing stories from Lizzie Presser, Linda Villarosa, Maurice Chammah, Mike Giglio, and Will Storr.
Our Gardens, Growing: A Reading List Reading List Five stories about plants and gardens and the humans that tend them.
On the Frontline of Disaster: The Volunteer Ambulance Drivers of Karachi, Pakistan Highlight The Edhi Foundation volunteer ambulance service drivers work for $1.30 US per day, collecting the dead and wounded in the streets of Karachi, Pakistan.
Back in the Kitchen: A Reading List About Gender and Food Reading List Eight must-read essays on how we cook and how we eat.
How a Story Becomes a ‘Hopeful Thing’: George Saunders on His Writing Process Highlight At the Guardian, the author recounts how it takes “hundreds of drafts” and “thousands of incremental adjustments” to form a story into a “hopeful thing.”
The Grim Reaper of Pubs Commentary Tom Lamont’s exhaustive 2015 deep-dive on the death of pub culture in England is worth re-reading, considering the role a bar plays within a community.
27 Years and 1,000 Break-Ins: North Pond Hermit — Book Edition Commentary An excerpt from The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit — Michael Finkel’s book on Christopher Knight, the hermit who survived by committing 1,000 break-ins over nearly three decades.
