"Fifteen miles into a 30-mile hike in Glacier National Park, when the blue sky turned black and lightning struck the mountains and made the very soil feel electric, it sure as shit didn’t matter what I looked like."
"So much of L.A. life is about coming and going, but the readers here inhabit an in-between space where motion has stopped and time is suspended . . . ."
"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
"Most of the belongings, such as clothing, makeup and blankets, could be replaced in time. But she panicked when she realized that her dentures, acquired after months of dental appointments, were also gone."
"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
"What a sweet romance: an esteemed Hopkins scientist, whose research took him away from home, writing love letters back to his wife in Baltimore. Or so it seemed."
"I take out $50,000 in student loans every single year, and it sucks. I have to work 20 hours a week to pay off the interest. I hate sitting here knowing I’m working my ass off only so my money can go to supporting genocide."
In 2022, there were just 42,000 nuns in America and the majority were elderly. For The Baffler, Lauren Fadiman spent some time with Benedictine sisters and explored the history and decline of religious life. "There was a time when the convent was the closest a woman could get to both the Lord and women’s lib," she writes. "The vow of chastity lifted the burdens of early marriage, bad sex, and potentially lethal childbirth; the habit released women from the obligations of beauty; and the requisite knowledge of Latin and a wide range of religious texts required that nuns be well-educated."
Looking for new writers to work with on @longreads stories. I prefer to read drafts of personal essays/reported essays but I also consider reported essay pitches, too. Rates start at $500. Read our submission guidelines: https://longreads.com/submissions/
"She pulls out what appears to be a large metal caliper, the kind that was once used for dragging fresh-sawed blocks of ice out of lakes in New England. She measures. 'I just want to make sure that Mother Cabbage is fully dilated to 10 cabbage leaves,' she explains." —Joshua Rigsby for Thrillist
"His mum worries about how dangerous it is for Potts to take strangers into his home, some of whom have serious issues. But she can see how it gives him a level of stability and purpose that seemed impossible a few years ago." —Samira Shackle for The Guardian.
"The water grab described in a federal indictment allegedly happened cat burglar-style, siphoned through a secret pipe, often after hours, to avoid detection."
In order to treat his Crohn's disease, writer Andrew Chapman had to stop eating for three weeks and get all his nutrition from an IV bag. He writes for @longreads about what he missed in his time without food — social contact, black pepper crabs, roast chicken — and why he became obsessed with watching cooking shows.
"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 reason websites continue to load, bank transfers go through, and civilization persists is because of the thousand or so people living aboard 20-some ships stationed around the world, who race to fix each cable as soon as it breaks."
"But without radical intervention, whether by the government or the workers, the industry will become unrecognizable. And the writing trade—the kind where one actually earns a living—will be obliterated."
"But a few months in, his supervisor started calling him 'boy.' Keys heard white coworkers use the N-word and call people 'monkey.' There was a swastika drawn with a black marker near where he clocked in to work every day."
"But instead I head to my mall suite, take off my meatball T-shirt, and allow the first tears of the cruise to roll down my cheeks slowly enough that I briefly fall asleep amid the moisture and salt."
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