Up in the Air
Inside the compulsive world of airline rewards hobbyists, who spend the bulk of their lives flying around the world for free.
The Senseless Logic of the Wild
It was just a kayaking trip. Then it upended their lives.
Roseanne Barr Just Can’t Shut Up
“I admit it,” she says, in her hotel room. “I’m a troll. I’m the queen of the fucking trolls.”
Important Things Are Happening to Jason Dill
Jason Dill is rebuilding one of the coolest skate brands on the planet, one hand-cut collage at a time.
There Is No Reason to Cross the U.S. by Train. But I Did It Anyway.
The particular sheen of America by Amtrak.
West Virginia in Transition
Upon returning to my hometown, though, some twenty-odd years after that bus ride, I kept seeing signs that perhaps, even in rural Appalachia, the times had changed.
Fiction Pick of the Week: "Floating"
The physical and sociological effects of climate change in Thailand.
Her Time
Debra Koosed was diagnosed with dementia at 65. That’s when she decided she no longer wanted to live.
Song for My Father
Where words fail, there is music.
Ricky Gervais on Provocation, Picking Targets and Outrage Culture
An interview with the comedian.
Kiese Laymon is the author of How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America and Heavy: An American Memoir.
“It’s ironic to me that my mom was the woman who taught me how to read. She was the black woman who taught me how to read and write. And everything I wrote outside of my house I was taught not to write to my mama. I just think that’s where we are as black writers and black creators in this country. Literally because most of our teachers are white. Principals are white. The standards are white. But I wanted to flip this on its head and I wanted to write this book to the person who taught me how to read and write. And, yeah, we got some dysfunctional, fucked-up shit going on. But we also have some abundant love shit going on, too.”
Thanks to MailChimp, The Last Column, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
Stepping Into the Uncanny, Unsettling World of Shen Yun
Does the ubiquitous dance troupe really present five thousand years of civilization reborn?
The Trap House-Busting Vigilante of Pine Ridge Reservation
After Julie “Mama Julz” Richards’s own family was nearly destroyed by addiction, fighting back against meth became a personal crusade.
Stacey Abrams For....
Governor? Senator? Veep? President?!
The Fertility Doctor’s Secret
Donald Cline must have thought no one would ever know. Then DNA testing came along.
The Death of the Calorie
It’s time to bury the world’s most misleading measure.
Blurred Vision
Looking for answers after an ayahuasca murder in Peru.
Destined for Export
The legacy of the Guatemelan adoption industry.
The Great Star Wars Heist
The appearance of an ultra-rare Boba Fett with the missile rocks the insular world of Star Wars toy collectors.
57 Feet and Rising
During the Great Floods of 2011, the Mississippi unleashed deadly currents and a flow rate that could fill the Superdome in less than a minute. Defying government orders, the author and two friends canoed 300 miles from Memphis to Vicksburg. This is their story.
Japan’s Rent-a-Family Industry
People who are short on relatives can hire a husband, a mother, a grandson. The resulting relationships can be more real than you’d expect.
This article, which was #1 on Longform’s top articles of 2018 list, just won the National Magazine Award for feature writing. Hear Batuman discuss it on the Longform Podcast.
How Rats Became an Inescapable Part of City Living
“Rats are our shadow selves.”
The Epic Hunt for a Lost World War II Aircraft Carrier
In 1942, a volley of torpedoes sent the U.S.S. Wasp to the bottom of the Pacific. Earlier this year, a team of wreck hunters set out to find it.
White Nationalism’s Deep American Roots
On the book that Hitler called his “bible” and the man who wrote it.
Thrashed
If Thrasher is Vogue for skaters, 53-year-old Jake Phelps is the sport’s Anna Wintour.
