Communion
How a lonely man in his 30s found welcome and community in an unlikely place: spin class.
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Danger on the Divide
“If I’d felt more confident on the route, if he hadn’t made that comment, if we’d been communicating more, would I have pushed for another day off? If, if, if.”
A Journey of 6,000 Miles
Layan Albaz is one of thousands of Palestinian children who have lost limbs in Israeli air strikes—and one of the very few evacuated to the US for medical care.
Predator or Prey
“I still want to feel each meal, each touch, each body I absorb into mine.”
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Weekly Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring stories by Michael Lewis, Patricia Wen, Ted Chiang, Katie Thornton, and Sarah Smarsh.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Highlighting stories from Alex Morris, Gordy Megroz, Patricia Marx, Leigh Claire La Berge, and Anne Casselman.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Recommending stories by Pamela Colloff, Jasper Craven, Omer Bartov, Judith Sanders, and Lale Arikoglu.
Essays and Features
The Great Debate: Recorders vs. Notebooks
On how one narrative journalist decided never to use a tape recorder in his reporting—and why it matters.
Open to the Outlandish: A Conversation with Rebecca Renner
On getting that first draft down, the importance of a strong editor, and how a story evolves from pitch to publication.
How to Run 314 Miles After a Traumatic Brain Injury
After a horrific accident, doctors told Todd Barcelona that he’d likely never race again. So he and his wife decided to run farther than they ever had before.
Creation of Woman: Evangelical and Transgender in the Bible Belt
How a spouse’s confession freed a young couple from gender expectations in the Deep South.
Finding Worth Among the Echoes
Faded music dreams, a fledgling family farm, and a search for new definitions of work and success.
The Shapes of Silence
On coming out and how secrets protect and harm us.
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Reading Lists
Bad Blood (Longreads’ Version): A Musical Feuds Reading List
Whether competition between artists or strife within a band, popular music features some of pop culture’s messiest rivalries.
Wild Talk: A Reading List On Artificial Intelligence and Interspecies Communication
AI is opening up the possibility of communicating with other animals. But will we listen? And can we ever truly understand?
Untold Fortunes: A Reading List on the Creative Uses of the Tarot
Five stories that explore cultural and literary references to the tarot.
Knife Insurance: An Extreme Surgery Reading List
Never before have so many people sought medical intervention to address their insecurities—and never before has that intervention gone to such lengths.
Girls Will Be Girls: A Reading List on Consumerism in the Internet Age
Are the scores of girl personas on TikTok just a marketing campaign? Let’s do the (girl) math.
Sliding into the Future: A Reading List on Snowsports
Pointless elitism, or an urgent dress rehearsal for the climate crisis?
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