Longreads features

Failure To Lawn

On what a dying patch of turfgrass can teach us about water scarcity, ecological repair, and the lies we tell ourselves about success.

The Secret Door

“When we read, we make believe. We arenโ€™t duped or ensorcelled. Deep down we decide. We make ourselves believe.”

Was It Worth It?

“I didnโ€™t think about those nachos even once. I had never experienced anything like it. Is this, I asked my friends, how it feels to be normal?”

The Wayfinders

The Marshall Islandsโ€™ first national soccer team discovers what โ€œhomeโ€ can meanโ€”on a field in Arkansas.

The Memory Maker

OpenAI’s Sora allowed you to deepfake yourself. Users started to remember things that never happened.

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Recent editors’ picks

Consider the Sister

Lindsey Adler | The Small Bow | May 11, 2026 | 4,690 words

“Amy Wallace has spent two decades guarding the human her brother wasโ€”against a world that prefers David Foster Wallace as a puzzle.”

The Chinese Whiz Kids of Silicon Valley

Viola Zhou | Rest of World | May 11, 2026 | 4,161 words

“Chinese-born tech workers have fueled Silicon Valley for decades. In the AI era, theyโ€™re superstars.”

Reality Check

Kai Kupferschmidt | Science | April 30, 2026 | 4,325 words

“AI-generated images have left us questioning what is real. But the godfather of digital forensics, Hany Farid, is not giving up.”

The Banal Horror of Jimmy Fallon

Jon Greenaway | Current Affairs| April 20, 2026 | 2,120 words

“Under the sterile blue lights of his studio, Fallon laughs endlessly at the same pseudo-jokes, rubs elbows with Trump and Sam Altman, and ushers in the death of culture.”

Wish You Were Her

Mina Tavakoli | n+1 | May 5, 2026 | 7,596 words

โ€œAboard the celebrity impersonatorsโ€™ cruise.โ€

The Clippening

Mia Sato | The Verge | May 6, 2026 | 2,169 words

“‘Clippers’ cut up podcasts, videos, and events into infinite shorter versions. How long can they ride the algorithms?”

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Weekly Top 5

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

Recommending notable reads by Lauren Collins, Gabrielle Bruney, Gregory Barber, Sally Oโ€™Reilly, and Jeffrey Arlo Brown.

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

This week we are celebrating writing from Paul Collins, Daniel Lefferts, Mitch Therieau, Joseph Bullington, and Hanif Abdurraqib.

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Learn to Love Your Search Results Again.

Introducing the Longreads Story Recommender.

The Longreads questionnaire

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Excerpts from The Atavist Magazine, our sister publication

Open Season

“Coloradoโ€™s San Luis Valley was a wildlife poacherโ€™s paradise. Then an undercover federal agent arrived.”

The Good Catholics of Buffalo

With thousands of US soldiers dying in Vietnam, a righteous group of young New Yorkers embarked on a secret mission to bring the war machine to its knees.

The Dark and Stormy Tale of a ShantyTok Band

When a scraggly band of folk musicians arrived to tour the UK, residents of a small Welsh town were enamoredโ€”until they learned that the bandโ€™s leader ruled with an iron fist.

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Longreads reading lists

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