Motherhood on the Line By Alice Driver Feature Three asylum seekers navigate coronavirus and climate change at the U.S.-Mexico border. Friends: We Need Your Help to Fund More Stories
Shades of Grey By Ashley Stimpson Feature In 2018, Floridians voted overwhelmingly to end greyhound racing, a sport they were told was archaic and inhumane. What if they were wrong?
An Atlas of the Cosmos By Shannon Stirone Feature We’ve mapped Mars, the Moon, the solar system, even our own galaxy. Which means there is only one thing left to understand in this symbolic way and that is the entirety of the cosmos.
Longreads Honored with 14 Notable Mentions in ‘Best American’ Series By Longreads Commentary Our cup runneth over! Congratulations to all!
Ten Outstanding Short Stories to Read in 2021 By Longreads Feature Pravesh Bhardwaj read and and shared 304 short stories on the #longreads Twitter hashtag in 2020. Here are his favorites.
The Music of the Cave By Carolyn Wells Highlight “Though the team didn’t find the metal library, Armstrong put the adventure ‘up there with the moon landing.'”
Is the Cure for Cancer Locked in Shrunken Heads from the Amazon? By Seyward Darby Highlight Could shrunken heads from the Amazon hold the key to curing cancer?
‘No Single Machine Should Be Able to Control So Many People’ By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight Can we survive the social web?
The Case of the Disappearing Bucatini By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight Having trouble finding bucatini? You are not alone.
The Rehab of Big Sky Country By Carolyn Wells Highlight “Daily treks in silence are an effective way to get anyone to reflect on their lives and consider what’s really important.”
The Boom and Bust Cycles of Rock Springs, Wyoming By Krista Stevens Highlight “The day I turned 18, the Astro Lounge called and asked me to come strip for them. I have no idea how they knew I’d turned 18.”
How Does the Story End? By Krista Stevens Highlight “How other people live is pretty much all I think about. Curiosity is the rock upon which fiction is built.”
Quarantine Brain: How ‘the Internet Became More Internet’ in 2020 By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight Nothing made sense in 2020 — unless you were on the internet.
A Bit of Mud is Good for You By Carolyn Wells Highlight “Leung says a “misalignment with nature” in building design is partly to blame for our scourge of chronic diseases and the current pandemic.”
Longreads Best of 2020: All of Our No. 1 Story Picks By Krista Stevens Feature Here’s every story that was chosen as No. 1 in our weekly Top 5 email.
The 25 Most Popular Longreads Exclusives of 2020 By Krista Stevens Feature The original reporting, personal essays, columns, and collaborations that were our most-read stories of the year.
A Bit of Mud is Good for You By Carolyn Wells Highlight “Leung says a “misalignment with nature” in building design is partly to blame for our scourge of chronic diseases and the current pandemic.”
The Dark Side of Birding By Krista Stevens Highlight “Undeniably, eBird … brings birders together and allows for rapid information sharing. It’s also created new—and sometimes contentious—etiquette and social dynamics.”
Shades of Grey By Ashley Stimpson Feature In 2018, Floridians voted overwhelmingly to end greyhound racing, a sport they were told was archaic and inhumane. What if they were wrong?
Out There: On Not Finishing By Devin Feature What happens if the stories we tell ourselves about our lives leave us lonely, wrestling with meaning?
The Powerful Decide By Longreads Feature What makes good or bad design happen anywhere depends on who has the most power.
‘The Sea and Sky Decide What They Will Allow’ By Krista Stevens Highlight “I’m working on a book about Arctic explorers, and that means swimming in a sea of sorrow.”
The Grieving Landscape By Longreads Feature Upon discovering that her mother had been a member of the group Women Strike For Peace (WSP), Heidi Hutner becomes obsessed with feminist nuclear history.
This Week in Books: Farewell Longreads! I’m Taking This Rodeo to Substack. By Dana Snitzky Commentary To read my “This Week in Books” newsletter in the future, follow me on substack.
Palliative Brownies By Krista Stevens Highlight “I grew up in the grip of the epidemic, maturing as people I adored as surrogate aunties and uncles fell ill and vanished from our lives.”
Neighborhood Watch: The Strange Aftermath of a ‘Karen’ Encounter By Seyward Darby Highlight In a progressive New Jersey community, racial solidarity is complicated.
Longreads Best of 2020: Writing on COVID-19 By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Feature Our top story picks in COVID-19 reporting this year.
The Alarmist: Is One of the Pandemic’s Loudest Scientific Voices Helping or Hurting Public Health? By Seyward Darby Highlight Meet Eric Feigl-Ding, the town crier of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trapped in Limbo Down Under By Seyward Darby Highlight In Australia, some 30,000 people live in a state of legal uncertainty crafted by politicians.
The Secret Group Trying to Topple North Korea’s Regime By Seyward Darby Highlight Has the U.S. government already betrayed the activists seeking regime change in North Korea?
The Rehab of Big Sky Country By Carolyn Wells Highlight “Daily treks in silence are an effective way to get anyone to reflect on their lives and consider what’s really important.”
The Mormon Mommy Bloggers of Instagram By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight Alexandra Tanner spent this weird year following Mormon mommy bloggers on Instagram.
Longreads Best of 2020: Essays By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Feature A small sampling of standout essays published this year.
‘Hue’s Hue’: Katy Kelleher’s Column on Color By Krista Stevens Highlight “Tyrian purple was a difficult color to manufacture. Thousands of snails were required to create a single ounce of dye.”
Plastic’s Broken Promise By Krista Stevens Highlight “The first one I saw was on the path outside my house: a single white plastic glove, the fingers curled inward like a sleeping animal.”
