“Jeannie Peeper’s diagnosis meant that, over her lifetime, she would essentially develop a second skeleton. Within a few years, she would begin to grow new bones that would stretch across her body, some fusing to her original skeleton. Bone by bone, the disease would lock her into stillness. The Mayo doctors didn’t tell Peeper’s parents that. All they did say was that Peeper would not live long.”
In the ring, Hector “Macho” Camacho was a champ. Out of it, he was a coke-fueled, womanizing wild man, until the appetites that consumed him cost him his life.
On decorated sniper Chris Kyle and the troubled young veteran who took his life.
An oral history of the 2003 World Series of Poker, as poker went mainstream in America and online players invaded the competition.
The story of Héctor Espino, the greatest hitter never to play in the majors.
“I haven’t put out an album in 20 years. Let’s face it. I am an oldies act. I just don’t want it to be like when you watch Channel 13 and there’s the Delltones or some English band from the ’60s, and they’re real crotchety and they look terrible, and I go, ‘Oh, God, I don’t want to be on that show.’”
The story of a tobacco industry whistleblower.
Inside Brigham Young University’s successful animation program.
A beloved girls’ basketball coach is accused of sexually molesting several of his players.
Patsy Cline’s hometown and the debate over her legacy.
How self-harm came to take more lives than war, murder and natural disasters combined.
A con man ruining lives from behind bars. A woman who took on her health insurance company and won huge. A producer who lost everything on an epic coke binge. Those stories and more are included in Best Alternative Longform Journalism, a new anthology of great writing from alt-weeklies, which is available free and only through Longform.
Featuring: Gus Garcia-Roberts (Miami New Times), Sharyn Jackson (Santa Fe Reporter), Caleb Hannan (Seattle Weekly), Alan Prendergast (Westword) and many more.
Published by Association of Alternative Newsmedia.
Download Best Alternative Longform Journalism for free:
• ePub
• mobi (Kindle)
• pdf
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A profile of legendary L.A. crack dealer Freeway Rick Ross, now out of jail and trying to sell everything from weaves to his own biopic, written by a journalist who has known him for decades.
A profile of the California governor.
Inside the White Student Union of Towson University.
The battle over stop-and-frisk within the NYPD’s ranks.
Mat Honan is a senior writer at Wired.
"[The tech] industry—especially as it relates to a lot the silly apps and the silly websites and the silly shit that we put up with—is ridiculous. It's just such a hype fest, people living off of jargon and nonsense. There are entire conferences devoted to nonsense! ... I like to skewer that stuff, because I don't want to feel responsible for it. I don't want to feel like I'm making someone go out and buy some piece of shit they don't need."
Thanks to this week's sponsor, TinyLetter!
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The discombobulated existence of polar bears and the people trying to save them.
An excerpt from Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America.
The pharmaceutical quest to give women a better sex life.
The trade in fake olive oil.
They “speak” through their feet, some can even draw, and at least one has been hung for murder. A collection of picks about pachyderms.
On the blurry ethical lines in the part-time Texas state legislature, where politicians and CEO’s are one and the same.
In North Georgia, two men feud over a quarter-mile property line.
A crash course in Tantra and superficial spirituality.
How Wall Street won.
