Longform

  • Podcast
  • Best Of
    • 2021
    • 2020
    • 2019
    • 2018
    • 2017
    • 2016
    • 2015
    • 2014
    • 2013
    • 2012
  • Archive

    • Sections
    • Publications
    • Writers
    • Tags
  • Random Article
  • Contact

    • podcast@longform.org

Sections

World

World

A Fragile Economy Balanced on a Shark’s Back

The post–civil war boom in shark fishing that saved Congolese fishermen and their families is now drying up.

Christopher Clark Hakai Dec 2020 15min Permalink

World Health

Germany vs. The Virus

While Covid-19 deaths in the United States skyrocket, Germans have managed to largely contain the damage. What do we need to learn?

Annalisa Quinn Boston Globe Magazine Nov 2020 20min Permalink

World

China's 'Tainted' Cotton

China is forcing hundreds of thousands of Uighurs and other minorities into hard, manual labour in the vast cotton fields of its western region of Xinjiang.

John Sudworth BBC Dec 2020 25min Permalink

Crime World Media

Murder in Malta

After a journalist was assassinated, her sons found clues in her unfinished work that cracked the case and brought down the government.

Ben Taub New Yorker Dec 2020 Permalink

Best Article Crime World

A Mother's Revenge

Armed with a handgun, a fake ID card and disguises, Miriam Rodríguez was a one-woman detective squad, attempting to catch her daughter’s murderers in the border town of San Fernando.

Azam Ahmed New York Times Dec 2020 Permalink

World Travel

Interpreting America at the Minsk Book Fair

In Belarus, a travel writer wrestles with his role.

Doug Mack Lit Hub Nov 2020 30min Permalink

Tech World

The Mystery of the Gatwick Drone

A drone sighting caused the airport to close for two days in 2018, but despite a lengthy police investigation, no culprit was ever found. So what exactly did people see in the sky?

Samira Shackle The Guardian Dec 2020 20min Permalink

World Movies & TV

India’s Leading Documentary Filmmaker Has a Warning

Anand Patwardhan spent decades tracking the rise of Hindu nationalism. And now, under an increasingly repressive government, he holds his screenings in secret.

Abhrajyoti Chakraborty New York Times Nov 2020 25min Permalink

Politics Tech World

The Scammer Who Wanted to Save His Country

Last year, a hacker gave Glenn Greenwald a trove of damning messages between Brazil’s leaders. Some suspected the Russians. The truth was far less boring.

Darren Loucaides Wired Nov 2020 40min 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

World

The Underground Movement Trying to Topple the North Korean Regime

Adrian Hong says he leads a group of “freedom fighters” conducting a revolution. Has the U.S. already betrayed them?

Suki Kim New Yorker Nov 2020 35min Permalink

Science World Religion

Milk

For a few days in 1995, many Indians believed a religious idol had developed a lifelike ability to drink milk.

Sukhada Tatke Fifty Two Nov 2020 20min Permalink

World

The Price of Freedom

Christina Kim risked everything to escape North Korea’s entrenched gender violence. She almost didn’t make it.

Annie Hylton Guernica Nov 2020 20min Permalink

History World

More Lasting than Bronze

On revisionist architecture.

Looking at the statues here, or anywhere, makes one wonder: Is abstraction simply the cardinal feature of any war where the loss is so much greater than whatever can be described as victory?

Jack Hitt Virginia Quarterly Review Sep 2020 30min Permalink

Politics World

Sanctuary Unmasked: The First Time Los Angeles (Sort of) Became a City of Refuge

On Los Angeles’s 1985 declaration of “sanctuary status.”

Paul A. Kramer Los Angeles Review of Books Oct 2020 30min Permalink

World

Arrested, Tortured, Imprisoned: The U.S. Contractors Abandoned in Kuwait

Dozens of military contractors, most of them Black, have been jailed in the emirate — some on trumped-up drug charges. Why has the American government failed to help them?

Doug Bock Clark New York Times Magazine Oct 2020 35min Permalink

World

How Syria's disinformation wars destroyed the co-founder of the White Helmets

In November 2019, James Le Mesurier, the British co-founder of the Syrian rescue group, fell to his death in Istanbul. What led an internationally celebrated humanitarian to take his own life?

Martin Chulov Guardian Oct 2020 25min Permalink

Sports World

The Erasure of Mesut Özil

A year ago, he was one of the Premier League’s highest-paid players. Now, after angering China and refusing a pay cut, he has simply vanished.

Rory Smith, Tariq Panja New York Times Oct 2020 Permalink

World Health

On a Bender in the Grecian Isle Where Himbos Reign Supreme

Partying in Kavos during the pandemic.

Ben Munster MEL Magazine Oct 2020 Permalink

History World

Enemy Aliens

The history of civilian internment camps.

Andrea Pitzer Lapham's Quarterly Dec 2014 15min Permalink

Crime World

An American Drug Lord in Acapulco

How a middle-class jock from a Texas border town became La Barbie, one of the most ruthless and feared cartel leaders in Mexico.

Mary Cuddehe, Vanessa Grigoriadis Rolling Stone Sep 2011 25min Permalink

World

The Sealed City

Nine days in Wuhan.

Peter Hessler New Yorker Oct 2020 30min Permalink

World

Japan’s Lost Generation Is Still Jobless and Living With Their Parents

Shut out of the employment market in their 20s, hikkomori shut-ins continue to search for direction in middle age.

Yoshiaki Nohara Bloomberg Businessweek Sep 2020 20min Permalink

Business World

Hype Man of the Century

The bizarre story of what happened when Chinese crypto millionaire Justin Sun acquired BitTorrent.

Chris Harland-Dunaway The Verge Sep 2020 Permalink

Science World

Where Camels Take to the Sea

In Gujarat, India, a special breed of camel is not constrained by land—but cannot escape the many forces of change.

Shanna Baker Hakai Sep 2020 15min Permalink

Newer
1 2 3
5 6 ··· 55
Older