"We’re each attached to years of texts, searches, and photos, an archive of humiliation that could detonate at any time."
Longreads
• Cheri Lucas Rowlands
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The Cousin Returns
Longreads
• Cheri Lucas Rowlands
‘You Killed the Car’
"A Ferrari and a distinctive Highland Park home combined for an iconic scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off."
Longreads
• Brendan Fitzgerald
The Conscience of the City
"On the life of a garbageman."
Longreads
• Krista Stevens
The Boeing 747 Begins Its Final Descent
"The jet was perhaps the pinnacle of American engineering excellence. Its retirement signals an end to an era of American culture—and ambition."
Longreads
• Carolyn Wells
It Was Britain’s Most Expensive House. Why is its Only Resident a Homeless Man Who Lives on the Porch?
"With many people desperate for secure housing, what does the abandonment of this palace tell us about the UK?"
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The Top Five Longreads of the Week
Showcasing stories from Sloane Crosley; Zadie Smith; Mark Johnson and Saumya Khandelwal; Todd Kliman; and Sheila Liming.
Longreads
• Peter Rubin
Submitting to the Beast
"A father and son in New Orleans—feasting and flaneuring."
Longreads
• Brendan Fitzgerald
Thornton Wilder’s Last Play Vanished Into Thin Air. Or Did It?
"Decades after 'The Emporium' failed to open on Broadway in 1954, one man went on a quest to find it."
Longreads
• Cheri Lucas Rowlands
‘It’s More Like a Playlist’: Lavinia Spalding on Editing the Best Women’s Travel Writing
Longreads
• Krista Stevens
The Feeding
"My mom and I lived together for five years—the breast cancer years—until she died from the disease."
Longreads
• Carolyn Wells
Humans Killed Millions of Vultures. Now People Are Paying the Price.
"As vultures vanished, dogs multiplied, and rabies spread. Humans are living with the consequences."
Longreads
• Brendan Fitzgerald
In the Reality Lab
"Your body's data was only valuable once."
Longreads
• Seyward Darby
Anguished Parents, Crying Doctors: Life Amid Utah’s Measles Outbreak
"The state’s outbreak means adapting to America’s new reality, in which vaccine-preventable diseases become common again."
Longreads
• Krista Stevens
The End of Books
"What happened when a dumpster arrived behind my university's library."
Longreads
• Cheri Lucas Rowlands
For People with Misophonia, Everyday Noises Can Be Agony
"The neurophysiological disorder is characterized by a severe aversion to sound—and the struggle to convince others of the severity of that aversion."
Longreads
• Carolyn Wells
The True Story Behind the “El Cap Kindergartener” Ascent
"On May 22, a 7-year-old reached the summit of El Capitan. Why are so many climbers upset about it?"
Longreads
• Courtney E. Martin
Friction: A Reading List on Why Inconvenience Can Be Meaningful
Longreads
• Cheri Lucas Rowlands
The Last Straw
"Inside the tiny community of English master thatchers, a fight is unfolding over a tradition that may not survive."
Longreads
• Brendan Fitzgerald
Losing Paradise
"As rising seas swallow Louisiana’s marshes, oil companies are pretending nothing has changed — and that now floatable, fishable waters remain their private property."
Longreads
• Seyward Darby
The Paperboy’s Secret
"In boyhood, guilt was a constant companion. I stopped mentioning the quarters that Mr. Wood put into my pocket."
Longreads
• Peter Rubin
Are Memories Transferable — or Edible?
"In the 1960s, worm-training experiments and their strange implications captivated the nation."
Longreads
• Seyward Darby
The Inside Story of the Athens Music Scene
"How did the college football town spawn the B-52s, R.E.M., and Widespread Panic, to name just a few? The maestros and misfits who led Athens’s rise to one of the world's most influential and improbable music towns tell all."
Longreads
• Longreads
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Recommending notable stories by Wyatt Williams, John Leland, Jonathan Weiner, Suzy Hansen, and Max Ufberg.
Longreads
• Peter Rubin
How Three Chess Friends Battled Demons and Saved Two Lives
"A homeless chess hustler, a scholar and an aging recluse found hope in a trashed apartment by Central Park."
Longreads
• Brendan Fitzgerald
Art for Our Sakes
"Why should we go on making things?"
Longreads
• Cheri Lucas Rowlands
How Austin’s Sandlot Baseball Scene Became a Magnet for Indie Rockers, Filmmakers, Designers, and Brands
"If you build it, they will come."
Longreads
• Carolyn Wells
The Rise and Rise of Balloon Racing’s First Family
"Joe Heartsill and his sons, Rhett and Lucas, are international eminences in a very obscure corner of professional sports."
Longreads
• Longreads
The Fugitive Childhood of a Cocaine Smuggler’s Daughters
Longreads
• Brendan Fitzgerald
Online Trolls Harassed Her Six-Year-Old. That Was Only the Beginning.
"How a group of sports fans at the University of Iowa sparked a clash involving a basketball star, a T-shirt company, and a reporter from halfway across the country."