FeedCity: Longreads

"Mary Carole McDonnell made low-budget crime shows, but her own story was built on deceptions fit for one of her series. Now, she’s on the FBI’s Most Wanted list and the target of a global manhunt."

Longreads
16 Sep 13:03 • Seyward Darby

Paid Phones

"Owing the payday loan apps."

Longreads
16 Sep 11:15 • Carolyn Wells

The Violent Feud That Shocked the Horse World

"A prominent dressage trainer shot a belligerent student—and now maintains that he’s the real victim."

Longreads
15 Sep 10:09 • Longreads

Eating Alone

Soggy fries, ghost kitchens, and a $19 bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich: what we've actually gained on the path to convenience.

Longreads
14 Sep 20:33 • Cheri Lucas Rowlands

More Nothing Now

"We are most human when we play freely, imaginatively, pointlessly. Gamification risks atrophying that most precious capacity."

Longreads
14 Sep 20:33 • Brendan Fitzgerald

Studio Ghibli’s Deepest Secret Is What Comes Next

"The ambiguous future of Japan’s most prestigious group of animators won’t get clearer anytime soon."

Longreads
14 Sep 18:48 • Krista Stevens

There’s No Place Like Group Chats

"My old friends and I have ended up scattered across different states, in different time zones, but we’ve made our own neighborhood inside the black and blue bubbles of our phones."

Longreads
11 Sep 10:45 • Longreads

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

In this edition: ㆍBefore, after ㆍMany, one ㆍAthlete, human ㆍSilent, spoken ㆍGame, mystery

Longreads
10 Sep 13:03 • Krista Stevens

Why Is Everyone In Tech So Sad?

"A lot of people seem to be realizing that knowledge work is mostly pointless. AI might give us the pleasure of finding out what happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers."

Longreads
10 Sep 11:03 • Brendan Fitzgerald

Can Andre Agassi Enjoy Pickleball More Than He Hated Tennis?

"After years of relative quiet, the public is meeting 'Andre 2.0' — a pickleball booster, an open book and a guy eager to build a less tortured relationship with competition."

Longreads
10 Sep 10:12 • Kanya Kanchana

Found Wanting: A Reading List on Measurement

We know that the act of measuring changes what is measured. Might it change us measurers, too?

Longreads
09 Sep 20:24 • Carolyn Wells

The Extraordinary Untold Story of Freddie Mercury: Mary Austin on Her Best Friend–and Love of Her Life

"He was Queen’s flamboyant frontman. She was his shy girlfriend, dreaming of marriage until they both realised he preferred men."

Longreads
09 Sep 16:33 • Brendan Fitzgerald

Welcome to the Age of AI Crime and Punishment

"America’s legal system is already grappling with cases where chatbots acted as lawyers and witnesses, generated the evidence, or helped plan a mass shooting. Who will be liable now that some AI agents are doing crimes all on their own?"

Longreads
09 Sep 13:45 • Seyward Darby

Ballroom Blitz

"Trump’s obsessive bid for architectural immortality is barreling toward completion."

Longreads
08 Sep 17:09 • Krista Stevens

Hurricane Helene Washed His Wife Away From Their Mobile Home. Now New Residents Live on the Same Land.

"Residents of a riverfront trailer park have lost homes and loved ones in multiple storms. A policy gap puts mobile home residents in harm’s way again and again."

Longreads
08 Sep 15:03 • Brendan Fitzgerald

This Bottle of Dijon Mustard from Costco is Crazy Hot. A Months-Long Investigation Rrevealed the Surprising Reason Why.

"The search for an answer took us to a mustard dynasty in France, a Hamilton mustard mill and Palliser’s Triangle."

Longreads
08 Sep 10:21 • Longreads

The Thief Who Wanted to Save the World

illustration of city at night with two red silhouette figures and a van in the foreground

"An ex-cop pulled off the largest armed robbery in Austria’s history, with his friend’s mistress as his accomplice. But he wasn’t trying to get rich. He wanted to be a real-life Robin Hood."

Longreads
07 Sep 23:21 • Carolyn Wells

On Tour with the Eclipse Chasers

"They spend their lives seeking seconds of darkness."

Longreads
04 Sep 11:27 • Brendan Fitzgerald

The “Conformation Show” and the Pursuit of the Ideal Dog

"Just inside the Farm Bureau Center, the doormats were already covered in fur."

Longreads
03 Sep 16:03 • Brendan Fitzgerald

Going Home with Wendell Berry

"The writer and farmer on local knowledge, embracing limits, and the exploitation of rural America."

Longreads
03 Sep 11:03 • Seyward Darby

The Anatomy of a Journalism Scandal

"The the first time 'The New York Times' had lost a defamation case in over half a century."

Longreads
03 Sep 10:12 • Longreads

The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Jon Ronson

two-panel graphic with author Jon Ronson on left in a sweater and circular glasses and image that reads "The Longreads Questionnaire: Jon Ronson" on right

The author of The Castle likes his music in a time capsule and silence in his home—but definitely not in his stories.

Longreads
02 Sep 17:36 • Krista Stevens

The 17 Minutes That Changed America

"For the briefest of windows, September 11, 2001, wasn’t yet a calamity but merely a strange accident. And that pivotal span forever altered the way we look at disasters, at the sky, and at one another."

Longreads
02 Sep 11:06 • Seyward Darby

A Mississippi Death Penalty Jury Was Seated. With One Black Juror.

"The jury sentenced Pitchford to death."

Longreads
02 Sep 11:06 • Cheri Lucas Rowlands

Memory Architecture

"Devotion to a Florida home."