Longreads
• Longreads
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Showcasing stories from J.B. MacKinnon, Daniel Kolitz, Daniel Shailer, Justin Neuman, and Hanif Abdurraqib.
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Longreads
• Carolyn Wells
Shetland’s Most Wanted
"A series of encounters with an unlikely band of separatists."
Longreads
• Brendan Fitzgerald
Then They Came for the Ostriches
"Poultry and paranoia in the Great White North."
Longreads
• Longreads
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Roberto José Andrade Franco
Longreads
• Brendan Fitzgerald
A True-Crime Producer Posed as an Heiress — Then Allegedly Stole $30 Million
"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
• Seyward Darby
Paid Phones
"Owing the payday loan apps."
Longreads
• 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
• Longreads
Eating Alone
Longreads
• Cheri Lucas Rowlands
More Nothing Now
"We are most human when we play freely, imaginatively, pointlessly. Gamification risks atrophying that most precious capacity."
Longreads
• 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
• 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
• Longreads
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
In this edition:
ㆍBefore, after
ㆍMany, one
ㆍAthlete, human
ㆍSilent, spoken
ㆍGame, mystery
Longreads
• 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
• 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
• Kanya Kanchana
Found Wanting: A Reading List on Measurement
Longreads
• 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
• 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
• Seyward Darby
Ballroom Blitz
"Trump’s obsessive bid for architectural immortality is barreling toward completion."
Longreads
• 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
• 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
• Longreads
The Thief Who Wanted to Save the World
Longreads
• Carolyn Wells
On Tour with the Eclipse Chasers
"They spend their lives seeking seconds of darkness."
Longreads
• 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
• Brendan Fitzgerald
Going Home with Wendell Berry
"The writer and farmer on local knowledge, embracing limits, and the exploitation of rural America."
Longreads
• 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
• Longreads
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Jon Ronson
Longreads
• 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
• Seyward Darby
A Mississippi Death Penalty Jury Was Seated. With One Black Juror.
"The jury sentenced Pitchford to death."
Longreads
• Cheri Lucas Rowlands
Memory Architecture
"Devotion to a Florida home."
Longreads
• Cheri Lucas Rowlands
What Happens When a Kid’s Robot Best Friend Dies?
"AI companion toys for neurodivergent children promise connection and therapy, but can they deliver for the long haul?"