How to Scam Like a Celebrity

“His alleged victims say he bribed New York Police Department officials, stole millions in diamonds, and persuaded Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Kim Kardashian to shill for a scam cryptocurrency. So why is Jona Rechnitz still free?”
illustration of jewelry and a ripped up check

Well Without Water

Haunted by a running tap in prison, a man grows obsessed with water waste and climate change, pushing him to the edge.

Weekly Top 5

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

Recommendations from Bobbie Johnson; Bee Wilson; Jia Tolentino; Isra Fejzullaj, Rina Chandran, and Michael Zelenko; and Matthew Ponsford.

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

Recommending stories from Mariana Serapicos, Camille Bromley, Devon Fredericksen, Georgia Brown, and Sarah Golibart Gorman.

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

Recommending stories by Maddy Crowell, Jackie Flynn Mogensen, Fraser MacDonald, Shi En Kim, and Bryan Gardiner.

Editors’ Picks

The Hobo Handbook

Jeremiah David | The Paris Review | May 9, 2025 | 2,233 words

“You can’t buy such a book, can’t download it, can’t trace its often multiple authors. But if you run in the right circles, all you have to do is ask.”

Cringe! How Millennials Became Uncool

Chloë Hamilton | The Guardian | May 8, 2025 | 1.957 words

“They are mocked by gen Z for everything from their trainer socks to their mom jeans and selfie technique. A maligned millennial asks: how did we get here?”

Living With My Ex

Richard Kelly Kemick | Maclean’s | May 7, 2025 | 2,579 words

“In the space of two weeks, my partner came out as gay and told me she was pregnant. What could have been the end of our family turned into a…

The Curious Case of the Pygmy Nuthatch

Forrest Wickman | Slate | May 11, 2025 | 6,365 words

“It was one of the weirdest errors ever committed to film. It took me months to uncover how it all went wrong.”

The Crypto Racket

Candice Bernd | Texas Observer / The Nation | May 5, 2025 | 4,145 words

“Public officials at all levels are propping up a Texas Bitcoin mining boom that’s threatening water and energy systems while afflicting locals with noise pollution.”

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Essays and Features

The Race That Turned to Ruin

“Fifteen teams lifted off from Switzerland in gas ballooning’s most audacious race. Three days later, two of them drifted into Belarusian airspace—but only one would survive.”

Tattoos

The ways memory, history, and identity are inscribed—on skin, in silence, and through generations.

Quieseeds

What if the key to understanding ourselves lies in the spaces between things—between words, between waves, between worlds?

The Romance History Forgot

Sir Robert Falcon Scott’s doomed journey to the South Pole captivated the world. But hidden within the legend was a story that has never been told—a love affair between two of the crew who survived.

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Reading Lists

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All of our year-end lists, since 2011.

Favorite stories from across the web, picked by Longreads staff, guest curators, and readers.