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Sharing and publishing the best longform stories at longreads.com since 2009. Sister site of @atavist.com.
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"On Mars, in the belly of a rover named Perseverance, a titanium tube holds a stone more precious than any diamond or ruby on Earth." — @rossandersen.bsky.social for @theatlantic.com
An Act of Cosmic Sabotage
How Donald Trump tried to ground NASA’s science missions
www.theatlantic.com
January 9, 2026 at 5:35 PM
"On Mars, in the belly of a rover named Perseverance, a titanium tube holds a stone more precious than any diamond or ruby on Earth." — @rossandersen.bsky.social for @theatlantic.com
Welcome to 2026! In this week's Top 5:
—January begins @theatlantic.com
—Finding beauty @thebeliever.net
—Powerful blues @oxfordamerican.bsky.social
—Toxic water @orionmagazine.bsky.social
—Begonia baton @theobserveruk.bsky.social
—January begins @theatlantic.com
—Finding beauty @thebeliever.net
—Powerful blues @oxfordamerican.bsky.social
—Toxic water @orionmagazine.bsky.social
—Begonia baton @theobserveruk.bsky.social
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week - Longreads
In this edition: January begins, finding beauty, powerful blues, toxic water, and begonia batons.
longreads.com
January 9, 2026 at 4:55 PM
Welcome to 2026! In this week's Top 5:
—January begins @theatlantic.com
—Finding beauty @thebeliever.net
—Powerful blues @oxfordamerican.bsky.social
—Toxic water @orionmagazine.bsky.social
—Begonia baton @theobserveruk.bsky.social
—January begins @theatlantic.com
—Finding beauty @thebeliever.net
—Powerful blues @oxfordamerican.bsky.social
—Toxic water @orionmagazine.bsky.social
—Begonia baton @theobserveruk.bsky.social
"So there I was, moving from apathy to disbelief, holding the same plant my great-grandfather Sigmund had nurtured nearly 100 years ago." —Emma Freud for @theobserveruk.bsky.social
observer.co.uk/news/first-p...
observer.co.uk/news/first-p...
The strange tale of Sigmund Freud’s begonia | The Observer
How the gift of a plant helped Emma Freud finally get to know her great-grandfather
observer.co.uk
January 9, 2026 at 12:35 AM
"So there I was, moving from apathy to disbelief, holding the same plant my great-grandfather Sigmund had nurtured nearly 100 years ago." —Emma Freud for @theobserveruk.bsky.social
observer.co.uk/news/first-p...
observer.co.uk/news/first-p...
"Its reputation as a poisonous place eventually gave way to a surreal, dream-like quality of legend, as though if you fell in, you’d emerge with some dark superpower."
@k-e-c.bsky.social for @orionmagazine.bsky.social: orionmagazine.org/article/trou...
@k-e-c.bsky.social for @orionmagazine.bsky.social: orionmagazine.org/article/trou...
Troubled Water - Orion Magazine
Diving into the myths of the Gowanus Canal
orionmagazine.org
January 8, 2026 at 5:58 PM
"Its reputation as a poisonous place eventually gave way to a surreal, dream-like quality of legend, as though if you fell in, you’d emerge with some dark superpower."
@k-e-c.bsky.social for @orionmagazine.bsky.social: orionmagazine.org/article/trou...
@k-e-c.bsky.social for @orionmagazine.bsky.social: orionmagazine.org/article/trou...
"For centuries, the life of Leonardo da Vinci has been pieced together from paint, ink, and paper—the fragile traces of a singular mind. That could be about to change."
Richard Stone for @science.org: www.science.org/content/arti...
Richard Stone for @science.org: www.science.org/content/arti...
Exclusive: Have scientists found Leonardo da Vinci’s DNA?
Inside the decadeslong quest to reveal the genes of a genius—and revolutionize art authentication
www.science.org
January 8, 2026 at 5:23 PM
"For centuries, the life of Leonardo da Vinci has been pieced together from paint, ink, and paper—the fragile traces of a singular mind. That could be about to change."
Richard Stone for @science.org: www.science.org/content/arti...
Richard Stone for @science.org: www.science.org/content/arti...
"You stay alive by hours, sometimes by minutes. Inch by inch, because something better might exist." In the final essay of his album anniversary series, Hanif Abdurraqib looks back at the great Phyllis Hyman and the bravest album of her storied career.
longreads.com/2026/01/08/p...
longreads.com/2026/01/08/p...
30 Years Later: Phyllis Hyman, "I Refuse to Be Lonely" - Longreads
The singer's first posthumous album deserves to be remembered as the bravest of her career.
longreads.com
January 8, 2026 at 4:50 PM
"You stay alive by hours, sometimes by minutes. Inch by inch, because something better might exist." In the final essay of his album anniversary series, Hanif Abdurraqib looks back at the great Phyllis Hyman and the bravest album of her storied career.
longreads.com/2026/01/08/p...
longreads.com/2026/01/08/p...
"I suspect the real motivation behind RTO mandates has nothing to do with productivity or company culture and everything to do with control. That is what the modern office was designed for, after all."
Kathy Chow for @thewalrus.ca: thewalrus.ca/return-to-of...
Kathy Chow for @thewalrus.ca: thewalrus.ca/return-to-of...
Welcome Back to the Office. You Won’t Get Anything Done | The Walrus
Return to office mandates aren’t about output. They’re about asserting control
thewalrus.ca
January 7, 2026 at 7:09 PM
"I suspect the real motivation behind RTO mandates has nothing to do with productivity or company culture and everything to do with control. That is what the modern office was designed for, after all."
Kathy Chow for @thewalrus.ca: thewalrus.ca/return-to-of...
Kathy Chow for @thewalrus.ca: thewalrus.ca/return-to-of...
"I understood, the very first time I saw the painting, that wherever there was space, a ball, a hoop, and one human, there was the possibility of a miracle made possible by human ritual." —Kiese Laymon for @thebeliever.net
The Worst Shot Ever Taken - Believer Magazine
I was sixteen when my mother gifted me a painting by Ernie Barnes. I’d seen one Barnes painting at that point on the cover of Marvin Gaye’s 1976 album, I Want You, on the brown carpeted floor of my…
www.thebeliever.net
January 7, 2026 at 5:35 PM
"I understood, the very first time I saw the painting, that wherever there was space, a ball, a hoop, and one human, there was the possibility of a miracle made possible by human ritual." —Kiese Laymon for @thebeliever.net
"That people can manipulate chatbots to get more information—regardless of how dangerous that information may be—is a hallmark of recent tragedies tied to AI chatbots." @sfgate.com
A Calif. teen trusted ChatGPT for drug advice. He died from an overdose.
"Who on earth gives that advice?"
www.sfgate.com
January 7, 2026 at 12:35 AM
"That people can manipulate chatbots to get more information—regardless of how dangerous that information may be—is a hallmark of recent tragedies tied to AI chatbots." @sfgate.com
"Fear was essential to keeping white power intact, and as the civil rights movement whipped up revolutionary energy across the Black Belt, Lummie’s and his colleagues’ efforts intensified."
An excerpt from the new @atavist.com story, by @alexmarvar.bsky.social: longreads.com/2026/01/06/l...
An excerpt from the new @atavist.com story, by @alexmarvar.bsky.social: longreads.com/2026/01/06/l...
Anatomy of Absolute Power - Longreads
The people of Wilcox County, Alabama, remember a longtime sheriff as a god or a monster—it just depends on who you ask.
longreads.com
January 6, 2026 at 4:51 PM
"Fear was essential to keeping white power intact, and as the civil rights movement whipped up revolutionary energy across the Black Belt, Lummie’s and his colleagues’ efforts intensified."
An excerpt from the new @atavist.com story, by @alexmarvar.bsky.social: longreads.com/2026/01/06/l...
An excerpt from the new @atavist.com story, by @alexmarvar.bsky.social: longreads.com/2026/01/06/l...
"The truth is that Barr is neither a sage nor a hermit. He doesn’t pretend to know what a lifetime in the woods has taught him." @milehighrobert.bsky.social
5280.com/winter-final...
5280.com/winter-final...
Winter Finally Comes for Gothic’s Billy Barr
Billy Barr has braved the fourth season deep in the Rocky Mountains for more than 50 years, amassing tons of climate data. What happens when his watch ends?
5280.com
January 6, 2026 at 12:35 AM
"The truth is that Barr is neither a sage nor a hermit. He doesn’t pretend to know what a lifetime in the woods has taught him." @milehighrobert.bsky.social
5280.com/winter-final...
5280.com/winter-final...
"Lowell plunders an emerald out of a wrecked ship, starts a fistfight with a local ruler, nearly dies when a boa constrictor wraps itself around her neck, and is wounded by an alligator. Journalists were suspicious." —@michaelwaters.bsky.social for @newyorker.com
Joan Lowell and the Birth of the Modern Literary Fraud
A century ago, an aspiring actress published a remarkable autobiography. She made up most of it.
www.newyorker.com
January 5, 2026 at 5:35 PM
"Lowell plunders an emerald out of a wrecked ship, starts a fistfight with a local ruler, nearly dies when a boa constrictor wraps itself around her neck, and is wounded by an alligator. Journalists were suspicious." —@michaelwaters.bsky.social for @newyorker.com
Reposted by Longreads
in January, I went to North Bend, WA, to talk about David Lynch. reporting this story was a trust fall — I went before I had an assignment — and I am ever so grateful to @longreads.com and @cherilucasrowlands.com for seeing the promise in this pitch longreads.com/2025/01/30/r...
David Lynch Was Here: A Visit to the Real Twin Peaks - Longreads
Notes from the Northwest on mourning, remembrance, and black coffee.
longreads.com
January 3, 2026 at 11:35 PM
in January, I went to North Bend, WA, to talk about David Lynch. reporting this story was a trust fall — I went before I had an assignment — and I am ever so grateful to @longreads.com and @cherilucasrowlands.com for seeing the promise in this pitch longreads.com/2025/01/30/r...
"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...