"What does it mean, in the end, to describe a leaf when it may fork into many others? Instead, we describe ferns by the generations of their branching." —Wei Tchou for Virginia Quarterly Review
"The technicians came to check on us periodically, whispering, 'Doing OK?' For the first time in years, I got the sense there was someone in charge who cared about me, who was looking over me. It was not perfect, but it was more tender than the world outside." —Krista Diamond for Slate
"At best, it’s a veiled attempt to reinforce regressive views about the role of women, and in doing so, walk back decades of feminist progress. Some argue that the tradwife “movement” is also intrinsically rooted in white supremacy. And yet I cannot stop watching." —Amy McCarthy for Eater
"They would soon learn that the news was far worse. Elliot had perpetrated a horrific massacre, one that still stands apart in America’s epidemic of mass shootings." —Mark Follman for @motherjonesmag
"For Sidney’s parents, the loss is all-consuming. They’ve spent more than three months piecing together the final minutes of her life." —Lori Culbert for The Vancouver Sun
"In our generation, there are so many people who have gone through trauma, especially at the hands of our postwar parents and a bigoted society. Each Rainbow Elder has their own story, but we all share a similar vulnerability." —Abby Tickel for Maclean's
"There has always been a certain feeling of euphoria that comes to Tony Pabón as he looks out at the dance floor from his D.J. table at Salsannati Dance Company." —Charley Locke for New York Times Magazine
"It was my first in-person chess competition, and I was full of optimism. I faced a severe-looking child who wore a food-stained sweatshirt emblazoned with a cartoon penguin." @robaeprice for Business Insider
"The rise of avocados from a delicacy to an everyman’s lunch on toast has launched cottage industries in home delivery that specialize in offering perfectly ripe fruit, or unique varietals grown throughout the year." —Cathy Erway for Taste Magazine
"It raises questions about how the AI boom is impacting young people and their social development and what the future could hold if teenagers — and society at large — become more emotionally reliant on bots." —Jessica Lucas for @verge
"Simply by the numbers, Madonna is the best-selling female recording artist of all time, and the only woman of the five all-time best-selling recording artists—a category that includes the Beatles, Elvis, Queen, and Michael Jackson." —Joanna Biggs for @nybooks
"As I dive, a wetsuit clings to my body, forming a second skin that allows me to stay in the water longer without getting cold. Long fins morph my human legs into a mermaid-like tail." —Sally Montgomery for Sapiens Magazine
"Where the banks end, the land plateaus, rolling out under the sky with a cover of black spruce, their trunks narrow from the effort of growing in permafrost. The peak of Arctic summer in the north Yukon is just beginning to tilt toward autumn yellow and red." —Bathsheba Demuth for Emergence Magazine
"Way back when I was writing Midnight’s Children, there’s a passage there in which optimism is referred to as a disease ... And I think that’s what happened to me: I got infected by the optimism disease, and have never entirely lost it, in spite of many reasons to do so, such as the nature of the world." —Salman Rushdie in conversation with Erica Wagner at The New Statesman.
"Silence has been framed as society’s enemy. It broods, holds hostage, cannot be trusted. Worst of all, it spells boredom. We are accustomed to entertaining ourselves by filling all the empty space with noisemakers and firecrackers. Yet nothing is more boring than a lot of noise." —Jeanette Cooperman for The Common Reader
"The work is taxing. I stand all day, or walk around and around the worktable. I carry huge sheets of glass to a cutting machine and cut them. I smash unusable pieces loudly into a metal bucket, then tote the bucket to the dumpster out back. My hands grow strong and scarred." —Wendy Brenner for Oxford American
"Reimer has spent over a decade specializing in chiropterology, the study of the species with 'winged hands.' She was drawn to study bats, in part, because of the way they’ve evolved to fill ecological niches, pollinating specific flowers, distributing fruit and tree seeds that help sustain and regenerate forests, and regulating insect populations." —Trina Moyles for @hakaimagazine
"Black was a gesture of solidarity, whereas non-white was a term of exclusion. To be called non-white was to be defined in the negative, Biko argued, defined by what you weren’t. To choose black was to define yourself in the positive." —Eula Biss for The Believer.
• How Israel uses AI for assassination in the Gaza War
• A father reflects on his son’s development
• The rise of the term, “gaslighting”
• Toni Morrison’s expansive rejection letters
• The history of PostSecret
Learn why our editors have recommended these pieces and find out which story our audience loved most.
"Lavender has played a central role in the unprecedented bombing of Palestinians, especially during the early stages of the war. In fact, according to the sources, its influence on the military’s operations was such that they essentially treated the outputs of the AI machine 'as if it were a human decision.'" —Yuval Abraham for +972 Magazine / Local Call
"Into a black sheath attached to his belt he slid a short sword, 17 inches long, etched with the words “THOT SLAYER” (THOT is an acronym for That Ho Over There, a slur sometimes used for women, especially sex workers). Then he left home." —Lana Hall for Maclean's
Andrew "Huberman sells a dream of control down to the cellular level. But something has gone wrong. In the midst of immense fame, a chasm has opened between the podcaster preaching dopaminergic restraint and a man, with newfound wealth, with access to a world unseen by most professors." —Kerry Howley for New York Magazine
"After his exhibit closed, the postcards took over Frank’s life. Hundreds poured into his mailbox, week after week. He decided to create a website, PostSecret, where every Sunday he uploaded images of postcards he’d received in the mail." —Meg Bernhard for Hazlitt
"In his life, Bob brought a sense of awe and wonder to many. His death has prompted a much-needed conversation about how humans and elk can share the same home. Many more elk will die on our roads this year. None will be as famous as Bob, but each one will be a life lost, and endanger human lives in the process." —Emma Gilchrist for @thenarwhal