"It was only at the burial that I was told how much I had – and there is no better term for this – smashed it." —Alex Taylor for The Fence Magazine

https://www.the-fence.com/i-write-eulogies-not-tragedies/?src=longreads

In this week's #longreads Top 5:

• A father, a son, a tragedy (The Guardian‬)
• The cost of capital punishment (The Atlantic)
• Criminal justice, unjustly (CalMatters)
• Gaming without sight (Wired)
• An unvarnished icon (The Yale Review)

Learn why our editors have recommended these pieces and find out which story our audience loved most.

https://longreads.com/2025/06/13/longreads-top-567/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

"We want time to be gentle, but not to stop."

A pick from the Nautilus archives, from David Shultz: https://nautil.us/the-gravekeepers-paradox-235340/

"It’s not that Max is a slow learner: it’s that he has so much more to learn. Where other kids seek a driving licence, he is tasked with the invention of the internal combustion engine." —Archie Bland for The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/may/24/the-boy-who-came-back-the-near-death-and-changed-life-of-my-son-max/?src=longreads

"It turns out almost everybody has an opinion on Wilson’s supposed genius, or on Pet Sounds as evidence of it, or both."

Revisit this #longreads reading list on #BrianWilson, by Cecilia Gigliotti: https://longreads.com/2022/03/03/let-go-of-your-ego-a-reading-list-on-brian-wilson-and-pet-sounds/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social

"Close to half of California’s 58 counties do not employ any full-time public defense investigators."

Anat Rubin for CalMatters: https://calmatters.org/investigation/2025/06/public-defense-investigators/

"The harsh reality of boom-and-bust gold mining becomes clear: The brief boom benefited only a fortunate few. The bust was for everyone else."

NEW on Longreads: An excerpt from Josh Jackson's new book, THE ENDURING WILD, out on June 24 from Heyday Books:

https://longreads.com/2025/06/12/blm-land-enduring-wild-josh-jackson/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

"Today’s L.A., a few say, feels more like a Rust Belt crater than the glamorous capital of the world’s entertainment."

Lane Brown for Vulture: https://www.vulture.com/article/hollywood-movies-film-industry-los-angeles-california-production.html

"They can’t answer the question. They don’t have original thoughts. They just parrot back what they’ve heard in TikToks. They try to show me 'information' ChatGPT gave them."

Jason Koebler for 404 Media: https://www.404media.co/teachers-are-not-ok-ai-chatgpt/

"They were all men and they stuck out because they displayed an exceeding level of stillness and homogeneity in a room with a flow of people from all over the world, who are always in motion, and who mostly looked different from one another."

Liz Veazey for n+1: https://www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/at-immigration-court/

“‘Are the pouches one size fits all?’ Giselle, a cheery woman in her forties from Yorkshire, England, asked. ‘No, there are different pouch profiles,’ Duenyas replied diplomatically.’”
Jennifer Wilson for The New Yorker #movies #tv #sex #longreads https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/16/how-i-learned-to-become-an-intimacy-coordinator?src=longreads

Donald Trump Is Destroying the Economy and Waging War on the Poor https://www.byteseu.com/1088404/ #DonaldTrump #economy #LongReads #MAGA #RSreports

Here's what we've got for you in our Weekly Top 5:

* Wildfire: too close and personal (Alta Journal)
* Running from demons (The Economist)
* Experiments in microdosing (5280 Magazine)
* Reading is hard (Vox)
* "Jackass" as a love language (Bright Wall/Dark Room)

Learn why our editors have recommended these pieces and find out which story our audience loved most.

https://longreads.com/2025/06/06/the-top-5-longreads-of-the-week-566?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

"In its simplest form, a whale’s death becomes a source of life for years beyond its time. It is a transformation that turns death into life on an almost incomprehensible scale."

Omnia Saed for Atmos Magazine: https://atmos.earth/after-the-fall/

So, with all this talk about deporting that idiot from Pretoria (who attained US citizenship), I think now would be an excellent time for y'all to read this article about another US citizen who had his citizenship stripped by the US State Department:

Herman Marks, the Butcher of Havana.

https://magazine.atavist.com/the-butcher-of-havana-cuba-che-castro-aclu/

"Deep literacy encourages abstract thought. But abstractions can be morally beneficent or abominable, illuminating or obfuscatory." —Eric Levitz for Vox

https://www.vox.com/politics/414049/reading-books-decline-tiktok-oral-culture/?src=longreads

"Kelvin Kiptum’s final run began at an abandoned fluorspar mine on the floor of Kenya’s Great Rift Valley."

Jonathan W. Rosen for 1843 Magazine (The Economist) #longreads #running #Sports https://www.economist.com/1843/2025/05/30/the-curse-of-kenyas-long-distance-runners/?src=longreads

"Waldrip began poking around, tugging on threads that had been untouched for years and unearthing new ones. Over a series of months, an alternate theory of what happened to Keith King began to form."

Stephen Lemons‬ for Phoenix New Times: https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/septic-tank-in-tiny-arizona-town-could-crack-cold-case-21798677

"Colorado’s psychedelic movement has not only been supported by clinicians and policymakers, but it’s also increasingly embraced by private capital financiers, wellness gurus, wine moms, and tech bros."

Robert Sanchez for 5280 Magazine:
https://www.5280.com/i-tried-magic-mushrooms-for-my-mental-health-heres-what-happened/