Sharing/publishing the best longform stories (#longreads) since 2009. Sister site of @Atavist. Mastodon: @longreads@mastodon.world. Bluesky: @longreads.com
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After a diagnosis of ventricular tachycardia, Kristin Idaszak rarely left home, until she realized: "Staying at home wouldn't save me. The threat resided inside my own chest."
A new @longreads essay on death, ossuaries, and learning to live again: longreads.com/2026/10/22/oss…
"They were beautiful and horrible, familiar and strange. I could not stop staring."
An essay by Daniel Barnum on grief, skulls, and finding a way to live in a world that's too much. Co-published with @AGNIMagazine: longreads.com/2026/10/15/mot…
Why do we visit places of death? Kristin Idaszak reflects on sites like Auschwitz, the Paris catacombs, and a crowded bone chapel in the Czech Republic—and on what she calls the "Disneyfication of death."
longreads.com/2026/10/22/oss…
In this week's Longreads Top 5:
—Bottling our brains (@Equatormag)
—Decades of doubt (@TexasMonthly)
—Cost of careers (@propublica)
—Meals in Mexico (Orion)
—Frustration of fish (@bioGraphic)
longreads.com/2026/10/23/the…
"Belfi told me that other players had warned him that he would see little of his first bonus installment. He left the bank with nothing." @ggarciaroberts for @propublica propublica.org/article/how-d…
"Forty-thousand bodies' worth of bones. Probably more. My brain buckled at the magnitude."
In a new @longreads essay, Kristin Idaszak writes about visiting an ossuary in her 20s, when death was just an idea, and returning years later, after her body made it real: longreads.com/2026/10/22/oss…
"The social contract is different for them. They’re not going to do what they’re told. That is the beautiful thing about a teenager, and it’s one of the reasons that they may not excel at paid work." @sylviemcnamara for @washingtonian washingtonian.com/2026/10/19…
"The text beside the skulls explained itself: Brought together is a euphemistic way of saying, assembled by grave robbing."
An essay by Daniel Barnum, co-published with @agnimagazine.bsky.social:
longreads.com/2026/10/15/mot…
"Right now, we’re in the midst of an attention crisis, individually and collectively snared in an infinite scroll of disruption and distraction. Berger saw this crisis coming and foresaw its consequences." A.O. Scott for @nytimes/@nytmag nytimes.com/2026/10/18/magaz…
"The story of Juan Méndez riding through the streets of Juárez, selling burritos to soldiers and civilians alike, is a story that a city told itself to build resilience."
Victoria Blanco for @Orion_Magazine: orionmagazine.org/article/fe…
"Despite the claims of collectors, a skull can only belong to its own person, not a museum or any other buyer on the market."
A new essay by Daniel Barnum, co-published with @AGNIMagazine: longreads.com/2026/10/15/mot…
Longreads retweeted
"Modern food delivery promises to make any food into something you can eat at home. But not every dish, and not every restaurant, is built for this."
longreads.com/2026/09/15/con…
In this week's Top 5:
* Losing human skills @aeonmag
* Devastating manipulation @dispatch__media
* Fire suppression failures @NewYorker
* Krillin’ it (Now Voyager)
* An epic eventyr @NYTmag
longreads.com/2026/10/16/top…
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In the early days of the United States, a surveyor walked more than a thousand miles in straight lines, transforming a forest into a massive grid. James Whorton Jr. traced his path to see whether parts of the forest remain today. longreads.com/2026/10/13/ame…
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"In a way, I haven’t stopped considering it, telling the story again and again, trying to understand something, to make it make sense. Even now, I find it tempting to dismiss the stranger as the uncomplicated villain of the narrative." Paul Rankin for Southlands southlandsmag.com/p/1d1d9380…
"I think of those who came down these sea lanes before me with fortune and glory on their minds. I think of which excellent vegan breakfast I am going to have. But mostly I think: All this for fish oil?" Gordon Peake for @nowvoyagermag nowvoyagermag.com/travel/sup…
"It would be easy to blame our deskilled bodies on the machines themselves. But, for centuries, modern human societies have been sold the lie that we are machines."
Melanie Challenger for @aeonmag: aeon.co/essays/the-more-we-r…
