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Great new articles, every day.

Best Articles

Best Article Science Health

Never Let Go

On being the parent of a micro preemie.

  1. Part One: Lost and Found

    A daughter is born, four months too soon.

  2. Part Two: The Zero Zone

    Juniper’s first few weeks.

  3. Part Three: Baby's Breath

    Miracles, in little pieces.

Kelley Benham The Tampa Bay Times Dec 2012 1h20min Permalink

Best Article Crime

Midnight in the Garden of East Texas

A charming assistant funeral home director named Bernie Tiede murders a wealthy widow, keeps her in a freezer for months, finally gets caught, and still has the town's sympathy as his case goes to trial. The story that became Richard Linklater's Bernie.

Skip Hollandsworth Texas Monthly Jan 1998 20min Permalink

Best Article

Chicago Christmas, 1984

How John, a father of 14, lost Christmas.

Read more

George Saunders on the Longform Podcast

George Saunders New Yorker Dec 2003 10min Permalink

Best Article Politics Media

The Fresno Bee and the War on Local News

The author spends time with the reporters fighting to keep news alive in an age when the forces they cover are working equally hard to destroy them.

Zach Baron GQ Dec 2018 25min Permalink

Best Article Reprints

Merv Curls Lead

Wealthy businessman Merv Bodnarchuk put together the dream team of curling. Then he put himself in the lineup.

Guy Lawson Saturday Night Apr 1999 25min Permalink

Best Article Arts Crime

In the Ashes of Ghost Ship

He helped build an artists’ utopia. Now he faces trial for 36 deaths there.

Elizabeth Weil New York Times Magazine Dec 2018 45min Permalink

Best Article Crime Tech

The Unbelievable Tale of a Fake Hitman, a Kill List, a Darknet Vigilante... and a Murder

Hitman-for-hire darknet sites are all scams. But some people turn up dead nonetheless.

Gian Volpicelli Wired UK Dec 2018 30min Permalink

Best Article Crime Media

Covering the Cops

A profile of Edna Buchanan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning crime reporter for the Miami Herald during its heyday.

Calvin Trillin New Yorker Feb 1986 30min Permalink

Best Article Crime Tech

Two Identities, One Man

The story of $800 million hedge fund fraudster Boaz Manor who led the alleged $31 million Blockchain Terminal ICO after disguising his identity with a beard.

Frank Chaparro The Block Dec 2018 Permalink

Best Article Arts History Music

Mystic Nights

The making of Blonde on Blonde in Nashville.

Sean Wilentz Oxford American Jan 2007 25min Permalink

Best Article Movies & TV

Frustration, I Love You

A profile of Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Ariel Levy New Yorker Dec 2018 30min Permalink

Best Article Science World

An Elephant Crackup?

African Elephants have been killing people, raping rhinos, and exhibiting uncharacteristically aggressive behavior. An investigation reveals deep similarities between elephants’ and humans’ reaction to childhood trauma.

Charles Siebert New York Times Magazine Oct 2006 15min Permalink

Best Article Reprints Sports

Friday Night Lights

On the start of the high school football season in Odessa, Texas. An adaptation published alongside the release of Bissinger’s 1990 book of the same name, which led to the movie and the show.

Read more

Previously: Buzz Bissinger on the Longform Podcast

Buzz Bissinger Sports Illustrated Sep 1990 25min Permalink

Best Article

Rich Man, Poor Man

Jack Whittaker won a $314 million Powerball jackpot. This bit of luck would destroy him.

April Witt Washington Post Magazine Jan 2005 20min Permalink

Best Article Science World

The World in Its Extreme

A 17,000-word exploration of the Sahara Desert, the hottest place on Earth.

  1. Part 1

  2. Part 2

  3. Part 3

William Langewiesche The Atlantic Nov 1991 1h10min Permalink

Best Article

The American Man at Age Ten

A profile of a suburban New Jersey fifth-grader named Colin Duffy.

Susan Orlean Esquire Dec 1992 20min Permalink

Best Article Business

A Business With No End

Inside the maze of an Amazon scam storefront empire.

Jenny Odell New York Times Nov 2018 25min Permalink

Best Article Reprints

The Killer Elite

Published across three consecutive issues and later adapted into the book (and mini-series) Generation Kill, the story of bullets, bombs and a Marine platoon at war in Iraq.

Read more

Previously: Evan Wright on the Longform Podcast.

Evan Wright Rolling Stone Jul 2003 1h55min Permalink

Best Article Arts

Secrets of the Magus

A 1993 profile of Ricky Jay, world-class sleight-of-hand conjurer who rarely performs (and never for children), historian of unusual entertainments and confidence scams, bibliomaniac.

Mark Singer New Yorker Apr 1993 1h Permalink

Best Article Reprints

Home for the Holidays

Surviving a trip to see the family for Thanksgiving.

Read more

“How I envy people who enjoy the company of their parents without the aid of pharmaceuticals.”

Reprinted from Home for the Holidays and Other Calamities.

Chris Radant Boston Phoenix Nov 1990 10min Permalink

Best Article Science

The Really Big One

A giant earthquake is coming to the Northwest. Unfortunately, no one knows when.

Read more

Schulz on the Longform Podcast

Kathryn Schulz New Yorker Jul 2015 25min Permalink

Best Article History

“Oh My God—We Hit a Little Girl”

The true story of M Company: from Fort Dix to Vietnam in 50 days.

John Sack Esquire Oct 1966 1h55min Permalink

Best Article Reprints Religion Travel

The Incredible Buddha Boy

“A legend is growing in Nepal, where people say a meditating boy hasn’t eaten or drunk in seven months. He barely moves, just sits under a tree, still as a stone. It’s impossible, some say. Is it a miracle? A hoax? Let’s find out.”

Read more

George Saunders on the Longform Podcast

George Saunders GQ Jun 2006 40min Permalink

Best Article Crime

Fog Count

What prison does to a person.

Leslie Jamison Oxford American Apr 2013 25min Permalink

Best Article

Letters From an Arsonist

Thomas Sweatt torched D.C. for decades and was finally jailed for killing one person. During a year-long correspondence from prison with a reporter, he confessed there were more.

Read more

Previously: The Longform Guide to Fire.

Dave Jamieson Washington City Paper Jun 2007 50min Permalink

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