The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Jaya Saxena
The former Eater correspondent has a new home—and a full plate. Here, she talks about growing up in NYC, favorite meals, and memorable reads.
Longreads
Longreads : The best longform stories on the web
Overdue Last read · last published · next check
Last read 21 hours ago, longer than this feed's 3 hours schedule.
Latest posts
How a Cowboy Rides When the Range is on Fire
"When wildfires approach, moving cattle to safety means managing their fear and instincts. Here’s how it’s done in B.C.’s Nicola Valley."
There’s Something Dangerous About Sam Rockwell
"Ever since that monologue—you know the one—everyone knows who the legendary scene-stealer is. Still, his appetite for taking risks means he’ll never stop surprising us."
The Phone Scammers Next Door
"An ambitious young couple, a multimillion-dollar swindle and the sting that brought them down."
Worm Munch Matters
"The lives that slither and scurry beneath the soil’s surface are vital for ecological health: now we can listen in to them."
Bucking Expectations: A Conversation with Rachel Hartigan
Oh, the places you'll go when you say yes.
G.P.S. and the Lost Art of Getting Lost
"A new book, 'Little Blue Dot,' by Katherine Dunn, raises questions about the unintended consequences of knowing where we are."
The Great Romance Slump
"Why are so few young people finding love?"
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Recommending stories from Emi Nietfeld, Brendan Borrell, Boyce Upholt, Fernando Pinho, and Vann R. Newkirk II.
The Ferry Boat Children
"For the children of south Mull, secondary school means leaving home age eleven. Their parents' silence was never consent."
Thank This Retired Projectionist for Those 3 a.m. Odyssey 70-mm. Imax Showings
"A Tennessee native and longtime film projectionist who first started working in Imax theaters in the ’90s, Caldwell has become integral to Imax’s 70-mm. rollouts even as he considers himself mostly retired."
Whose Babies Are These?
"A Chinese man hired a Florida surrogate, then didn’t pick up his kids, sparking a custody battle that could upend the industry."
Rachel Aviv: Mother and Daughter
"An interview with the author of 'Strangers to Ourselves'—and now, 'You Won’t Get Free of It.'"
Here’s the Scoop: A Reading List on Ice Cream
Seven stories that celebrate the surprising influence of a humble dessert.
Parting Shot
"Stormy Morse lost two partners to gun suicide. Then the NRA came to collect."
16 Hours in an Oakland Dive Bar
"Very few Oakland establishments open before noon. Club 2101 in Dimond is one of them. For patrons, it’s a second home."
Moment, Expand
"40 notes on Rob Reiner and Stand By Me ."
Speaking for the Dead
A New York Times veteran considers the art of the obituary and how words give shape to legacies.
Mister Anthony
"Mister Anthony could be my grandfather, if my grandfather, a retired Memphis city bus driver, was still alive, still driving strangers from one stop to another."
How I Became the Villain of El Cerrito’s Nextdoor
“I had a panic attack. Then I wrote an apology letter.”
Colossal Biosciences Said It Cloned Red Wolves. Is It for Real?
"The red wolf has long been a contentious species. The debate over its preservation got even messier last year, when Colossal said it had cloned the animal."
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
War stories, new colors, and the joy in getting hands on in art and gardening.
How War Has Redefined Marriage in Gaza
"Celebrating the bond between two lives is a declaration that life itself, however diminished, is still worth living."
What Would It Mean to See a New Color?
"Olo can be described as the 'greenest green,' though it can never be captured by a camera. But its development tells us a lot about our color vision."
Secrets of the Atomic City
"For decades, workers at a nuclear facility in Kentucky were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. Management assured them nothing was wrong. Then four friends risked everything to reveal the truth."
Six Teenagers, a Brutal Murder and the Story They Couldn’t Take Back
"In 2002, a group of friends from North Carolina told a story that ruined all their lives. What if it wasn’t true?"
The Missing Pages
"Sixty years after the Cultural Revolution began, a writer looks back to her childhood in Beijing during its peak, and the banned books that sustained her through the tumult."
A Fatal Reaction
"A cutting-edge gene-editing trial in China went disastrously wrong. A family wants accountability."
‘We Were Simply Animals’
"What happens to the disappeared in Mexico’s narco-slavery camps."
Magical Mystery Toads
The long, tangled, and mostly wrong history of the psychedelic toad.
How Rogue Officers Turned a Nationwide Camera Network into a Tool for Stalking
"Flock’s array of license-plate cameras was built to fight crime. But at least 50 law enforcement officers were charged with or accused of misusing it and other systems."