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Best of Longform.org

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Updated Sep 15, 202688 essayssaved 1×
The Story of a Suicide
The Story of a Suicide0.0

Ian Parker on Tyler Clementi, the gay Rutgers student who committed suicide after discovering that his roommate, Dharun Ravi, was taping his sexual encounters.

The Innocent Man, Part One
The Innocent Man, Part One0.0

The National Magazine Award–winning story about Michael Morton, a man who came home from work one day in 1986 to find that his wife had been brutally murdered. What happened next was one of the most profound miscarriages of justice in Texas history.

Cocaine Incorporated
Cocaine Incorporated0.0

How the world’s most powerful drug traffickers run their billion-dollar business.

Fear of a Black President
Fear of a Black President0.0

As a candidate, Barack Obama said we needed to reckon with race and with America’s original sin, slavery. But as our first black president, he has avoided mention of race almost entirely. In having to be “twice as good” and “half as black,” Obama reveals the false promise and double standard of integration.

The Rise and Incredible Fall of a Vicious Extortion Ring That Preyed on Prominent Gay Men in the 1960s
The Rise and Incredible Fall of a Vicious Extortion Ring That Preyed on Prominent Gay Men in the 1960s0.0

On a sleepy Sunday morning in late July 1965, Detective 3rd Grade James McDonnell received a call in the upstairs squad room of midtown Manhattan’s...

Battleground America
Battleground America0.0

Jill Lepore examines the history of gun ownership in America, from the Second Amendment and the N.R.A to George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin.

Andy Capp
Andy Capp0.0

Andy Capp is the comic strip by British cartoonist Reg Smythe for the Daily Mirror in 1957, the cartoons feature working class belligerent work shy Andy and his long-suffering wife Flo.

How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work (Published 2012)
How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work (Published 2012)0.0

Building Apple’s iPhone in the United States would demand much more than hiring Americans — it would require transforming the national and global economies.

After Newtown shooting, mourning parents enter into the lonely quiet
After Newtown shooting, mourning parents enter into the lonely quiet0.0

After the shooting and the politics, the Barden family suffers all that’s been lost since the day their son died.

The Impossible Refugee Boat Lift to Christmas Island (Published 2013)
The Impossible Refugee Boat Lift to Christmas Island (Published 2013)0.0

More than a thousand refugees have died trying to reach Christmas Island. But faced with unbearable conditions at home, they keep coming.

Thanksgiving in Mongolia
Thanksgiving in Mongolia0.0

Ariel Levy writes about her pregnancy, her journey to Mongolia, and a personal tragedy.

Invisible Child: Dasani’s Homeless Life
Invisible Child: Dasani’s Homeless Life0.0

There are more than 22,000 homeless children in New York, the highest number since the Great Depression. This is one of their stories.

Jahar’s World
Jahar’s World0.0

He was a charming kid with a bright future. But no one saw the pain he was hiding or the monster he would become.

19: The True Story of the Yarnell Hill Fire
19: The True Story of the Yarnell Hill Fire0.0

Through interviews with family, colleagues, and the lone survivor, a former hotshot pieces together their final hours—and the fatal choices that will haunt firefighting forever.

America still has a heartland, it’s just an artificial one
America still has a heartland, it’s just an artificial one0.0

The cosy coastal world of pretend farmers’ markets bears no resemblance to the actual back end of America

Blood Spore
Blood Spore0.0

Of murder and mushrooms

The Case for Reparations
The Case for Reparations0.0

Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.

The Ballad of Geeshie and Elvie
The Ballad of Geeshie and Elvie0.0

On the trail of the phantom women who changed American music and then vanished without a trace.

The Murders at the Lake
The Murders at the Lake0.0

In 1982 three teenagers were killed near the shores of Lake Waco in a seemingly inexplicable crime. More than three decades later, the tragic and disturbing case still casts a long, dark shadow.

The Hunt for El Chapo
The Hunt for El Chapo0.0

Patrick Radden Keefe on the capture of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, who is known as El Chapo, the notorious head of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.