New Longreads Essays and Features

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.

My Unlikely Existence

Is AI helping prospective parents game the fertility lottery? Should it?

An Internet of Checkpoints

A mysterious YouTube video gave thousands of people a place to breathe. Then it vanished.

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Recent Editors’ Picks

Buckle Up for Bumpier Skies

Burkhard Bilger | The New Yorker | March 2, 2026 | 8,262 words

“With climate change, the skies are becoming more turbulent. Can todayโ€™s planes still keep us safe?”

Recursive Resemblance

Patrick R. Crowley | Artforum | March 1, 2026 | 2,882 words

“On the feedback loops of mimesis, from the ancients to AI.”

The Ballad of Ollie Jackson

Eric McHenry | Eric McHenry | February 22, 2026 | 6,850 words

“How the baddest man int he St. Louis underworld failed to become a folk hero.”

25 Years of iPod Brain

Molly Mary O’Brien | The Dial | February 25, 2026 | 1,552 words

“Changed for good.”

The Man Who Broke Into Jail

James Verini | The New Yorker | March 2, 2026 | 13,480 words

“In Nashville, a criminal-justice activist commits a baffling crime.”

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Weekly Top 5

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

Recommending stories by Gaby Del Valle, Sheila Heti, Chris Pomorski, Louise Bokkenheuser, and Lida Zeitlin-Wu.

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Learn to Love Your Search Results Again.

Introducing the Longreads Story Recommender.

More Longreads Essays and Features

35 and 1

A brother lost, a son born, and the strange arithmetic of love.

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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Longreads Reading Lists

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