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Best of 2025 - Longreads
Welcome to December, readers! Once again, we’re revisiting the favorite nonfiction stories that defined our year—the pieces that moved us, reframed our thinking, or even nudged us to action. Each week...
longreads.com
We're sharing our favorite #longreads of 2025 over the next two weeks.
Bookmark our Best of 2025 page to catch up on the latest year-end essays and lists of notable editors' picks:
longreads.com/best-of-2025...
Bookmark our Best of 2025 page to catch up on the latest year-end essays and lists of notable editors' picks:
longreads.com/best-of-2025...
"A few years ago, I started to feel embarrassed to call myself a poet without truly knowing Heaney’s poetry. I resolved to read him, and to read him comprehensively." —Elisa Gonzalez for @yalereview.bsky.social
Elisa Gonzalez: “Searching for Seamus Heaney"
What I found when I resolved to read the poet's work.
yalereview.org
January 2, 2026 at 5:35 PM
"A few years ago, I started to feel embarrassed to call myself a poet without truly knowing Heaney’s poetry. I resolved to read him, and to read him comprehensively." —Elisa Gonzalez for @yalereview.bsky.social
"I sometimes think my main complaint about old age is the way it interferes with looking at art and listening to music." —Calvin Tomkins for @newyorker.com
Becoming a Centenarian
Like The New Yorker, I was born in 1925. Somewhat to my surprise, I decided to keep a journal of my hundredth year.
www.newyorker.com
January 1, 2026 at 5:35 PM
"I sometimes think my main complaint about old age is the way it interferes with looking at art and listening to music." —Calvin Tomkins for @newyorker.com
"I was twenty-six, with a bunch of other lives behind me—or beside me, or in front of me. Balthazar had just opened that April. I lied on my resume and I had the look." —Heather Bursch for @parisreview.bsky.social
Balthazar, 1997 by Heather Bursch
December 11, 2025 – “I’d been working at Balthazar for a few months when Debra pulled me aside to tell me they knew I’d lied on my resume. Was I fired?”
www.theparisreview.org
December 31, 2025 at 3:20 PM
"I was twenty-six, with a bunch of other lives behind me—or beside me, or in front of me. Balthazar had just opened that April. I lied on my resume and I had the look." —Heather Bursch for @parisreview.bsky.social
"The main trouble with 1587 Prime isn’t its child-like idea of luxury. It’s that it’s a steakhouse that doesn’t nail the steaks." —Liz Cook for @defector.com
Two Nights Playing With Fire At Patrick Mahomes And Travis Kelce's Steakhouse | Defector
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As celebrity restaurant mascots, athletes offer a tidy sense of vertical integration: Why not supply the very calories they need to expend on the field? I’m surprised there are so…
defector.com
December 30, 2025 at 5:35 PM
"The main trouble with 1587 Prime isn’t its child-like idea of luxury. It’s that it’s a steakhouse that doesn’t nail the steaks." —Liz Cook for @defector.com
"So you see, the elimination of bodily wastes, in an architectural space shared with others, has always been fraught."
Calvin Gimpelevich for @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social:
Calvin Gimpelevich for @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social:
Filthy Matters | Los Angeles Review of Books
Calvin Gimpelevich writes on the history and politics of public bathrooms, in this essay from LARB Quarterly no. 47, “Security.”
lareviewofbooks.org
December 29, 2025 at 3:20 PM
"So you see, the elimination of bodily wastes, in an architectural space shared with others, has always been fraught."
Calvin Gimpelevich for @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social:
Calvin Gimpelevich for @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social:
"And we have a lot of people that will also say, 'I want to be a tree,' or, 'I want to plant this tree at my mom’s grave.' We help them get to the place of understanding what it might be to be the whole forest."
John Christian Phifer for @atmosmag.bsky.social:
John Christian Phifer for @atmosmag.bsky.social:
Giving Our Bodies Back to the Earth: The Rise of Natural Burial | Atmos
What if your body could nourish the land long after you’re gone?
atmos.earth
December 26, 2025 at 3:20 PM
"And we have a lot of people that will also say, 'I want to be a tree,' or, 'I want to plant this tree at my mom’s grave.' We help them get to the place of understanding what it might be to be the whole forest."
John Christian Phifer for @atmosmag.bsky.social:
John Christian Phifer for @atmosmag.bsky.social:
"Bouncers and strip-club DJs. Tattoo artists and combat veterans with PTSD. Former addicts, fathers who’ve lost their children, husbands who’ve lost their wives. Men once lost but now found in the red suit." —David Gauvey Herbert for Esquire
Playing Santa Does Strange Things to a Man. What It Did to Bob Rutan Was Even Stranger.
Bob Rutan is legendary among the tight-knit fraternity of Macy’s Santa Clauses. Like many of these men, playing Santa changed Bob. Profoundly. His story is one of struggle and failure, heartbreak and…
www.esquire.com
December 25, 2025 at 3:20 PM
"Bouncers and strip-club DJs. Tattoo artists and combat veterans with PTSD. Former addicts, fathers who’ve lost their children, husbands who’ve lost their wives. Men once lost but now found in the red suit." —David Gauvey Herbert for Esquire
"Walking barefoot as a monk was a constant reminder of how we humans are always connected to the earth, bound by gravity, ever aware of the heft we carry—some of us more than others."
Ira Sukrungruang for The Sun:
Ira Sukrungruang for The Sun:
On Walking
To love walking is to love the body, and this has been a barrier for me. Walking requires us to be a physical presence moving in a physical space. Your body is on display, with all its jostling parts…
www.thesunmagazine.org
December 24, 2025 at 1:38 PM
"Walking barefoot as a monk was a constant reminder of how we humans are always connected to the earth, bound by gravity, ever aware of the heft we carry—some of us more than others."
Ira Sukrungruang for The Sun:
Ira Sukrungruang for The Sun:
"For the liminal space curious, semi-abandoned suburban shopping malls are a perfect example of this phenomenon: something purpose-built that’s long-since lost that purpose, yet sits in limbo awaiting its next iteration." —@CuriousLana.bsky.social for @Hazlitt.bsky.social
The Dead Mall Society | Hazlitt
Standing in the wreckage of these spaces unlocks a sensation people often crave, but can’t name.
hazlitt.net
December 23, 2025 at 1:38 PM
"For the liminal space curious, semi-abandoned suburban shopping malls are a perfect example of this phenomenon: something purpose-built that’s long-since lost that purpose, yet sits in limbo awaiting its next iteration." —@CuriousLana.bsky.social for @Hazlitt.bsky.social
"Nothing is ever simple. Nostalgia protects and nostalgia poisons, and still we go back for more."
Jess Love for @theamscho.bsky.social:
Jess Love for @theamscho.bsky.social:
The Last Good Thing - The American Scholar
DVDs, streaming, and the price of nostalgia
theamericanscholar.org
December 22, 2025 at 1:38 PM
"Nothing is ever simple. Nostalgia protects and nostalgia poisons, and still we go back for more."
Jess Love for @theamscho.bsky.social:
Jess Love for @theamscho.bsky.social:
"Some of those stories may have snuck past you the first time, and that’s unavoidable; the ideal moment might not always be 'Right here, right now.' But good stories tend to stick around." Catch up on some fantastic stories you missed the first time around.
Best of 2025: The Stories You Missed - Longreads
In a year of exceptional reading, these overlooked stories refused to let us go.
longreads.com
December 19, 2025 at 8:16 PM
"Some of those stories may have snuck past you the first time, and that’s unavoidable; the ideal moment might not always be 'Right here, right now.' But good stories tend to stick around." Catch up on some fantastic stories you missed the first time around.
In this week's Top 5:
• Midair mayhem @newstatesman1913.bsky.social
• Know when to fold 'em @slate.com
• For art's sake @Economist.com
• Breech of trust @theguardian.com
• May it trees the court @harpers.bsky.social
longreads.com/2025/12/19/t...
• Midair mayhem @newstatesman1913.bsky.social
• Know when to fold 'em @slate.com
• For art's sake @Economist.com
• Breech of trust @theguardian.com
• May it trees the court @harpers.bsky.social
longreads.com/2025/12/19/t...
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week - Longreads
Recommending stories from Kate Mossman, Luke Winkie, Lou Stoppard, Sirin Kale and Lucy Osborne, and Rosa Lyster.
longreads.com
December 19, 2025 at 5:35 PM
In this week's Top 5:
• Midair mayhem @newstatesman1913.bsky.social
• Know when to fold 'em @slate.com
• For art's sake @Economist.com
• Breech of trust @theguardian.com
• May it trees the court @harpers.bsky.social
longreads.com/2025/12/19/t...
• Midair mayhem @newstatesman1913.bsky.social
• Know when to fold 'em @slate.com
• For art's sake @Economist.com
• Breech of trust @theguardian.com
• May it trees the court @harpers.bsky.social
longreads.com/2025/12/19/t...
"Great for the commute or that comfy spot on your couch, number five stories offer a handy distraction from the mundane or that holiday gathering you wish you’d declined." All our number fives, in a handy digest: longreads.com/2025/12/18/b...
Best of 2025: All Our Number Five Story Picks - Longreads
Every story we selected for the number five slot in our weekly newsletter, in a handy digest.
longreads.com
December 18, 2025 at 12:28 PM
"Great for the commute or that comfy spot on your couch, number five stories offer a handy distraction from the mundane or that holiday gathering you wish you’d declined." All our number fives, in a handy digest: longreads.com/2025/12/18/b...
"More than 150 years after it was created to train cabmen in horse-drawn carriages, the Knowledge still covers roughly the same area: a six-mile radius of the city . . . including some 25,000 streets and 6,000 points of interest." —Isabella Kwai for @nytimes.com
He Wants a New Start. So He Is Taking the Hardest Driving Test in the World.
In a world of GPS and car-hailing apps, some Londoners still want to drive a traditional black cab. First, they must memorize thousands of city streets.
www.nytimes.com
December 17, 2025 at 5:35 PM
"More than 150 years after it was created to train cabmen in horse-drawn carriages, the Knowledge still covers roughly the same area: a six-mile radius of the city . . . including some 25,000 streets and 6,000 points of interest." —Isabella Kwai for @nytimes.com
"Number one stories sit up straight and make direct eye contact. They’ve got a strong point of view, they often take a stand, and they always make you think." Check out all our number one story picks from 2025:
longreads.com/2025/12/17/b...
longreads.com/2025/12/17/b...
Best of 2025: All Our Number One Story Picks - Longreads
Every story we selected for the number one slot in our weekly newsletter, all in one place.
longreads.com
December 17, 2025 at 1:24 PM
"Number one stories sit up straight and make direct eye contact. They’ve got a strong point of view, they often take a stand, and they always make you think." Check out all our number one story picks from 2025:
longreads.com/2025/12/17/b...
longreads.com/2025/12/17/b...
"A stall in an aircraft is nothing to do with the engine, but means that there isn’t enough airflow over the wings to lift the plane. It will begin to fall, and once the speed of descent reaches a certain point it is unrecoverable." @newstatesman1913.bsky.social www.newstatesman.com/long-reads/2...
The strange fate of Flight 2069
Months before 9/11 a passenger seized control of a Boeing 747 and nearly crashed it into the Sahara. Everyone survived but no one quite recovered. How do you measure the cost of a disaster that didn't...
www.newstatesman.com
December 16, 2025 at 3:53 PM
"A stall in an aircraft is nothing to do with the engine, but means that there isn’t enough airflow over the wings to lift the plane. It will begin to fall, and once the speed of descent reaches a certain point it is unrecoverable." @newstatesman1913.bsky.social www.newstatesman.com/long-reads/2...
Our 10 most popular editors' picks of 2025:
longreads.com/2025/12/16/m...
Featuring @newyorker.com, @nymag.com, @intelligencer.com, @bloomberg.com, @texasmonthly.bsky.social, @sfchronicle.com, @curbed.com, and @slate.com 🏆
longreads.com/2025/12/16/m...
Featuring @newyorker.com, @nymag.com, @intelligencer.com, @bloomberg.com, @texasmonthly.bsky.social, @sfchronicle.com, @curbed.com, and @slate.com 🏆
Best of 2025: The Most Popular Editors’ Picks of the Year - Longreads
These audience hits were the most-viewed picks on our site in 2025.
longreads.com
December 16, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Our 10 most popular editors' picks of 2025:
longreads.com/2025/12/16/m...
Featuring @newyorker.com, @nymag.com, @intelligencer.com, @bloomberg.com, @texasmonthly.bsky.social, @sfchronicle.com, @curbed.com, and @slate.com 🏆
longreads.com/2025/12/16/m...
Featuring @newyorker.com, @nymag.com, @intelligencer.com, @bloomberg.com, @texasmonthly.bsky.social, @sfchronicle.com, @curbed.com, and @slate.com 🏆
"Shokuhin sampuru can be wondrously intricate: iridescent slivers of shrimp; striated sirloins with fatty crusts; bouncy poached eggs on the brink of first ooze." —Lauren Collins for @newyorker.com
Feast Your Eyes on Japan’s Fake Food
Lifelike food replicas have long been a fixture of Japanese dining culture. Now, in an exhibition at Japan House, they are being spotlighted as art.
www.newyorker.com
December 16, 2025 at 3:20 PM
"Shokuhin sampuru can be wondrously intricate: iridescent slivers of shrimp; striated sirloins with fatty crusts; bouncy poached eggs on the brink of first ooze." —Lauren Collins for @newyorker.com
"On the wall next to it, a sign read: 'When you have more than you need, build a longer table, not a higher wall.'"
@shannonheffernan.bsky.social and Julieta Martinelli for @themarshallproject.org/Latino USA/Futuro Investigates: www.themarshallproject.org/2025/12/05/i...
@shannonheffernan.bsky.social and Julieta Martinelli for @themarshallproject.org/Latino USA/Futuro Investigates: www.themarshallproject.org/2025/12/05/i...
The Small House Offering Aid in the Shadow of an ICE Detention Center
Amid rising ICE arrests, volunteers provide aid — a meal, a bed, gas money — to anyone visiting someone detained in remote rural Georgia.
www.themarshallproject.org
December 15, 2025 at 6:57 PM
"On the wall next to it, a sign read: 'When you have more than you need, build a longer table, not a higher wall.'"
@shannonheffernan.bsky.social and Julieta Martinelli for @themarshallproject.org/Latino USA/Futuro Investigates: www.themarshallproject.org/2025/12/05/i...
@shannonheffernan.bsky.social and Julieta Martinelli for @themarshallproject.org/Latino USA/Futuro Investigates: www.themarshallproject.org/2025/12/05/i...
"Would they rather see the ashes or a faithful copy? Eighty per cent of respondents said the ashes." —Lou Stoppard for @economist.com
The grab list: how museums decide what to save in a disaster
Billions of dollars’ worth of art is imperilled by climate change. Curators will have to make sacrifices
www.economist.com
December 15, 2025 at 6:21 PM
"Would they rather see the ashes or a faithful copy? Eighty per cent of respondents said the ashes." —Lou Stoppard for @economist.com
Our 2025 Best of series continues today with our Top 10 Original Stories. Here are the Longreads pieces that our readers loved most this year.
longreads.com/2025/12/15/b...
longreads.com/2025/12/15/b...
Best of 2025: Our Most Popular Originals of the Year - Longreads
Our 10 most-read Longreads essays of 2025.
longreads.com
December 15, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Our 2025 Best of series continues today with our Top 10 Original Stories. Here are the Longreads pieces that our readers loved most this year.
longreads.com/2025/12/15/b...
longreads.com/2025/12/15/b...
"I wonder about inertia and all the forces that push back on these men as hard as they try to push into the direction of their desires." —Rebecca E. Williams in the Georgia Review
St. John the Wondermaker - The Georgia Review
Feet are comprised of fifty-two bones, one for every week of the year, a quarter of the total number of bones in an entire human body. There are around 8,000 nerves and 125,000 sweat glands in each…
www.thegeorgiareview.com
December 12, 2025 at 8:16 PM
"I wonder about inertia and all the forces that push back on these men as hard as they try to push into the direction of their desires." —Rebecca E. Williams in the Georgia Review
In this week's Top 5 :
• Adobo vision (@theatlantic.com)
• A tragic machine (@thefern.org)
• Just Blaze (@oxfordamerican.bsky.social )
• The souls of others (@hazlitt.bsky.social)
• The non-demise of film (@nybooks.com)
longreads.com/2025/12/12/t...
• Adobo vision (@theatlantic.com)
• A tragic machine (@thefern.org)
• Just Blaze (@oxfordamerican.bsky.social )
• The souls of others (@hazlitt.bsky.social)
• The non-demise of film (@nybooks.com)
longreads.com/2025/12/12/t...
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week - Longreads
Recommending stories from Yasmin Tayag, Elliott Woods, David Ramsey, Larissa Diakiw, and A.S. Hamrah.
longreads.com
December 12, 2025 at 4:23 PM
In this week's Top 5 :
• Adobo vision (@theatlantic.com)
• A tragic machine (@thefern.org)
• Just Blaze (@oxfordamerican.bsky.social )
• The souls of others (@hazlitt.bsky.social)
• The non-demise of film (@nybooks.com)
longreads.com/2025/12/12/t...
• Adobo vision (@theatlantic.com)
• A tragic machine (@thefern.org)
• Just Blaze (@oxfordamerican.bsky.social )
• The souls of others (@hazlitt.bsky.social)
• The non-demise of film (@nybooks.com)
longreads.com/2025/12/12/t...
"I’ve wondered what might happen if I narrow my lens: apply constraints to my days, focus on the choices that actually shape my world."
In today's Year in Reading essay, @cherilucasrowlands.com acknowledges her limits: longreads.com/2025/12/12/r...
In today's Year in Reading essay, @cherilucasrowlands.com acknowledges her limits: longreads.com/2025/12/12/r...
A Year in Reading: Restraint as Wisdom - Longreads
We live in a culture built on ignoring limits—of land, of bodies, of attention—and these stories kept returning me to that truth.
longreads.com
December 12, 2025 at 3:42 PM
"I’ve wondered what might happen if I narrow my lens: apply constraints to my days, focus on the choices that actually shape my world."
In today's Year in Reading essay, @cherilucasrowlands.com acknowledges her limits: longreads.com/2025/12/12/r...
In today's Year in Reading essay, @cherilucasrowlands.com acknowledges her limits: longreads.com/2025/12/12/r...
"Turning in isn’t turning away. It’s something more like attunement."
@provenself.bsky.social shares his year in reading, highlighting Sarah Miller on ayahuasca therapy @nplusonemag.com, @chriscolin3000.bsky.social on total darkness @nytimes.com, and other #longreads: longreads.com/2025/12/11/i...
@provenself.bsky.social shares his year in reading, highlighting Sarah Miller on ayahuasca therapy @nplusonemag.com, @chriscolin3000.bsky.social on total darkness @nytimes.com, and other #longreads: longreads.com/2025/12/11/i...
A Year in Reading: Inward Journeys - Longreads
Navigating a world in flux demands some understanding of who you really are, and some of my favorite pieces from this year speak to that need.
longreads.com
December 11, 2025 at 5:40 PM
"Turning in isn’t turning away. It’s something more like attunement."
@provenself.bsky.social shares his year in reading, highlighting Sarah Miller on ayahuasca therapy @nplusonemag.com, @chriscolin3000.bsky.social on total darkness @nytimes.com, and other #longreads: longreads.com/2025/12/11/i...
@provenself.bsky.social shares his year in reading, highlighting Sarah Miller on ayahuasca therapy @nplusonemag.com, @chriscolin3000.bsky.social on total darkness @nytimes.com, and other #longreads: longreads.com/2025/12/11/i...