Behind the 1s and 0s, hackers are still people—and their motivations are more nuanced than you might think.
wired
Posted inEditor's Pick
How the Pentagon Learned to Use Targeted Ads to Find Its Targets—and Vladimir Putin
“Where a phone spends most of its evenings is a good proxy for where its owner lives.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
To Own the Future, Read Shakespeare
“Tech and the liberal arts have always been at war. Don’t assume Silicon Valley will win.”
Posted inNonfiction
Best Of 2023: Features
At the time of this writing, Longreads editors have created nearly 650 recommendations in 2023, and just about every one of them can be considered a feature. However, you’ll find that the stories contained herein are features in the classic sense: marriages of deep reporting and indelible prose. Some are light, others emotionally taxing. Their […]
Posted inNonfiction
Best of 2023: Investigations
Our top picks in the investigative reporting category.
Posted inCuration
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring reads from Scott Huler, Sophie Elmhirst, Lauren Smiley, Brian Payton, and Caity Weaver.
Posted inEditor's Pick
How Citizen Surveillance Ate San Francisco
“When a homeless man attacked a former city official, footage of the onslaught became a rallying cry. Then came another video, and another—and the story turned inside out.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
25-Year Lasagna, Special Ops Oatmeal, and the Survival Food Boom
“He says he has about a year’s worth of food, stashed in various locations in his property, so that if someone breaks in to steal it, they would not be able to take all of it at once.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Watch This Guy Work, and You’ll Finally Understand the TikTok Era
“The creator economy is fragmented and chaotic. Talent manager Ursus Magana can (almost) make sense of it, with a frenetic formula for gaming the algorithms.”
Posted inTop 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring stories from Margaret Talbot, Wiam El-Tamami, Virginia Heffernan, Dave Denison, and Meilan Solly.