The Bad Thing
Sometimes the most haunting part of trauma isn’t what happened—it’s wondering what could have happened if you hadn’t trusted your gut.
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Around The Pit
Circling billions of gallons of toxic water at America’s largest Superfund site.
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.
In Defense of Spiders
Eight legs, many lessons: One writer explores the liminal spaces between self-censorship and creativity.
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Kickstart your weekend by getting the week’s best reads, hand-picked and introduced by Longreads editors, delivered to your inbox every Friday morning.
Weekly Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Showcasing stories from Jason Motlagh, Rhaina Cohen, Lydia C. Buchanan, Molly Young, and Forrest Wickman.
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.
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?
Madness, Melancholy, or Murder: An Ancient English Farm’s 50-Year-Old Mystery
Andrew Chamings returns to his childhood farmland to investigate the mystifying deaths of the Luxton siblings. What really happened down that dark country lane?
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.
Present Tense: The Long Shadow of an Eating Disorder
Eating disorders never truly go away. They just go quiet. For a while.
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Reading Lists
Suspended Falling: A Reading List on Walking
After seven million years of evolution, walking feels as natural as breathing. But as our environments evolve, so do our ways of walking through them.
What’s Your Type? A Reading List on Typefaces with Wild Tales to Tell
Seven stories exploring our love affair with type.
Love, Lust, Loneliness: A Valentine’s Day Reading List
Essays, reading lists, and editors’ picks on relationships, breakups, and many different kinds of love.
Remember the Titans: An ‘Attack on Titan’ Reading List
The influential anime didn’t just upend kaiju tropes—it delivered an unsettling look at imperialism and hubris.
TikTok Covens and QAnon Shamans: A Reading List on Neo-Paganism
People in the West are responding to modern life by reviving ancient pagan spiritual practices.
Ten Outstanding Short Stories to Read in 2025
Kickstart your reading year with 10 short stories selected by longtime contributor Pravesh Bhardwaj.
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