By All Measures
Our problems are too vast, our distance from them too great. How do we navigate our derangement of scale?
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New Longreads Essays and Features
30 Years Later: Phyllis Hyman, “I Refuse to Be Lonely”
The singer’s first posthumous album deserves to be remembered as the bravest of her career.
Anatomy of Absolute Power
The people of Wilcox County, Alabama, remember a longtime sheriff as a god or a monster—it just depends on who you ask.
Best of 2025: The Stories You Missed
In a year of exceptional reading, these overlooked stories refused to let us go.
Weekly Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Starting 2026 with stories from Jamie Thompson, Kiese Laymon, Marcus Wicker, Katherine Cusumano, and Emma Freud.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Recommending stories from Kate Mossman, Luke Winkie, Lou Stoppard, Sirin Kale and Lucy Osborne, and Rosa Lyster.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Recommending stories from Yasmin Tayag, Elliott Woods, David Ramsey, Larissa Diakiw, and A.S. Hamrah.
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More Longreads Essays and Features
Best of 2025: All Our Number Five Story Picks
Every story we selected for the number five slot in our weekly newsletter, in a handy digest.
Best of 2025: All Our Number One Story Picks
Every story we selected for the number one slot in our weekly newsletter, all in one place.
Best of 2025: The Most Popular Editors’ Picks of the Year
These audience hits were the most-viewed picks on our site in 2025.
Best of 2025: Our Most Popular Originals of the Year
Our 10 most-read Longreads essays of 2025.
A Year in Reading: Restraint as Wisdom
We live in a culture built on ignoring limits—of land, of bodies, of attention—and these stories kept returning me to that truth.
A Year in Reading: Inward Journeys
Navigating a world in flux demands some understanding of who you really are, and some of my favorite pieces from this year speak to that need.
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Longreads Reading Lists
Life on Display: A Reading List on Museums
Hushed halls can speak loud truths.
Map Room: A Radical Reading List on Cartographic Power, Perspective, and Possibility
Seven stories celebrating our fascination with maps.
Science Cheats: A Reading List on Unscrupulous Scientists
Six stories on the shady side of scholarship.
Dimes, Dunks, and Devotion: A Basketball Reading List
Seven essays that go beyond the box score.
Fleeing Family: A Reading List on Estrangement
Seven stories highlighting the perspective of estranged adult children.
Kingdom of Funga: A Mycelial Reading List on a Strange and Surreal World Around Us
Seven stories celebrating the kingdom of funga’s beauty and power.
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