New to Longreads and not sure where to start? Take our reader quiz for a few #longreads recommendations:

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Our Top 5:

→ Desensitized agent, @NewYorker
→ Peptide skeptic, @TheAtlantic
→ iPad grandparent, @intelligencer
→ Lifelong explorer, @aeonmag
→ Momentary maestro, @NYTmag

longreads.com/2026/11/06/top…

Join for $5/month or a one-time annual donation of $50 to receive these Top 5 recommendations, and our new monthly Passages newsletter, in your inbox.

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Today at Longreads, Ashley Stimpson explores time capsules: "We like the heady buzz of seeing our trivial existence through the exotic lens of the future; we crave the intoxicating but ultimately imaginary thrill of designing our own legacy."

longreads.com/2026/11/05/tim…

"As his brain healed over the next six months, however, something remarkable happened, something that would land Edward in the annals of neuroscience case history." @SadieDing for @nytimes @NYTmag nytimes.com/interactive/20…

On a Douyin-inspired road trip along the Yalu River, a Chinese father and his estranged daughter find the space to talk.

A new @Longreads essay from @AubeReyLescure: longreads.com/2026/10/29/fam…

"About 620,000 miles of barbed wire and other fencing crisscrosses the West like lattices on a pie crust of an imprecise baker, dividing land and life." @thatsMohrlikeit for @highcountrynews hcn.org/issues/58-11/w…

"Where did Tao think new problems would come from? New problems, Tao said, emerge from 'the slow, deliberative process' of working toward a solution, and this is what’s being destroyed.'" Rivka Galchen for @NewYorker newyorker.com/magazine/2026/…

"But there was one element I still couldn’t understand: What type of person could murder their wife in such a merciless way?"

Edward Abel Smith questions a man's innocence—and friendship—in our gripping new #longreads piece:

longreads.com/2026/11/03/mur…

"There are no phone numbers to call, no publicly accessible hiring managers to charm with a personalized email. Instead, there is what feels like a wall of tech that needs to be pierced in order to reach a human being."

Callie Holtermann @nytimes: nytimes.com/interactive/20…

"I Play the Field; I Read Around." longreads.com/2026/10/27/mag… via @Longreads

Our essay, “Still on Its Way to Cleveland,” published by Longreads, revisits that experiment in early internet culture and a time when the web felt more like a shared commons than a commercial marketplace.
longreads.com/2026/09/22/fam…

"Over the years, Anne says she has watched her mother abandon crossword puzzles, newspapers, and books in favor of the feed."

Jessica Lucas for @NYMag @intelligencer: nymag.com/intelligencer/…

"I am half-white; he is Chinese. I want to retort that it’s not complicated; I am his daughter. But I bite my tongue."

A new essay from Aube Rey Lescure: longreads.com/2026/10/29/fam…

"When he was a young man, this might have been the essence of what my father dreamed of: open roads, miles and miles of unknown potential ahead."

In China, a road trip is the new Chinese dream. For one family, it’s also a chance to break the silence. longreads.com/2026/10/29/fam…

"North Carolinians like to claim Lydia’s story as their own, but the tale of the vanishing hitchhiker is widespread."

Revisit one of our favorite 👻 essays on @Longreads, by @efriend, on ghost stories passed down across generations: longreads.com/2024/10/29/lyd…

The weekend has landed!

In this week's #longreads Top 5:

—Buffalo brain, anyone? (@nytimes)
—Singing injustice (@Harpers)
—Wikipedia judges (@WIRED)
—Dangerous dates (@OffrangeAg)
—Hugs with slaps (@theoffingmag)

longreads.com/2026/10/30/the…

"Lucy, Jane, and Jordana work in very different corners of the deathcare world, but each describes the same impulse: to bring care where they found neglect."

Andie Eisen for @LAReviewofBooks: lareviewofbooks.org/article/death-…

🧵 We're launching "Passages," a new, members-only series of essays about life-changing encounters with stories, each by one of our favorite writers. If you're a @Longreads fan, we think you'll love this.

In the coming months, subscribers will hear from a breadth of voices on the surprising ways in which reading has shaped their lives and work, along with a few personal nonfiction recommendations for you to check out.

Along with "Passages," you'll have access to our weekly Top 5, dispatches from @Longreads editors about our own top reads of the week. And you'll support original storytelling and the writers we work with to do it. longreads.com/join/?utm_sour…