"Israel’s new international college programs offer American students an escape from campus activism while training them as state cheerleaders."
Maya Rosen for Jewish Currents: https://jewishcurrents.org/degrees-of-separation-2
"By searching that data and cross-referencing it with other public records, we identified what we believed to be the name Banksy took. It is one of the most popular names in Britain, so common it helps him hide in plain sight."
Simon Gardner, James Pearson, and Blake Morrison for Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/global-art-banksy/
In "Good Writing," Neal Allen shares 36 tips to improve your sentences—and Anne Lamott weighs in on each one.
They bring that same dynamic to this week’s Longreads Questionnaire: https://longreads.com/2026/03/18/questionnaire-neal-allen-anne-lamott/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social
#Longreads #Writing #Writers #Authors #Interview #Reading #Books
"'You should write about my life,' the bike thief said, as we rode under the freeway, trucks roaring above us. Maybe I will, I said."—Iain Treloar for Escape Collective
"If I had to fill out an application and it asked me what my job description was, I’d say my job is to play music that allows people to find more of themselves."
Russell E. L. Butler in conversation with Jeff Mills for Pioneer Works Broadcast: https://pioneerworks.org/broadcast/jeff-mills-russell-e.l.-butler
#Longreads #Music #Techno #DanceMusic #JeffMills #Sound #Improvisation #Future #Time
"To local tribes, the scientists’ battle recalled pākehā fighting over access to Indigenous land—one of the oldest stories in New Zealand’s history."
Sean Williams for Now Voyager: https://nowvoyagermag.com/reporting/beneath-the-long-white-cloud
#Longreads #NewZealand #Environment #History #Indigenous #Research #Science #Volcano #NaturalDisaster
"In some cases, the damage is immediately apparent. Lightning, in addition to being very bright and very loud, is very hot—the air around it can hit temperatures about five times hotter than the surface of the sun—and so it can singe or burn people." —Jacob Stern for The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/04/lightning-strike-survivors-body-mind/686057/
"It was an encounter that started off well before veering profoundly off course." —Jesse Barron for Granta https://granta.com/transference-in-the-afternoon/?src=longreads #therapy #psychoanalysis #transference #reporting #journalism #longreads
"Though I don’t go to visit my mother’s grave, I like to think of the devil here, on a sunny hillside in a small town in Kansas visiting his son."
Traci Brimhall for Virginia Quarterly Review: https://www.vqronline.org/fall-2025/essays/devils-crown
"I spoke to a playwright making $10,000 a month, a multitalented chemist who at various points found gigs demonstrating poker and singing for AI."
Josh Dzieza for The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/cs/features/877388/white-collar-workers-training-ai-mercor/
#Longreads #AI #Journalism #Technology #Work #Labor #Data #AITraining
"You could forget them in a closet, or you could embark on a quest, a trial of perseverance and devotion, ending in a cold and faraway stretch of ocean." — Maggie Shipstead for The New York Times Magazine https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/magazine/antartica-ashes-dying-wish.html/?src=longreads #travel #family #antarctica #journalism #longreads
"But after a dramatic pause, the computer flashed a bunch of red exes and a message: THE PLAY IS NOT VALID. Cam threw his hands behind his head in disbelief." —Stefan Fatsis for Defector
https://defector.com/competitive-scrabble-is-a-lexical-shitshow
We've got your weekend reading ready! In this week's Top 5:
• Lost soul (Rolling Stone)
• Copy that (Art Forum)
• Missing beats (Defector Media)
• Muzzled watchdogs (The New Yorker)
• Ramblin' man (Texas Monthly)
https://longreads.com/2026/03/13/longreads-top-5-601/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social
Not yet a Longreads member? Join now to gain access to our weekly Top 5 (or to get it in your inbox), along with additional membership perks https://longreads.com/join/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social
"I am not, as a rule, a two-finger typist; usually, my wrists rest where they please. This morning, the keyboard refuses me, and I cannot rest them, not even on the supposedly ergonomic padded strip. The instant skin touches surface, a bright sting strikes, then fades to a low hum." —Jan Steyn for The Dial
https://www.thedial.world/articles/news/gout-jan-steyn
#Gout #Inflammation #Pain #Disease #Translation #History #Language
"All of the experts I spoke with agreed that the charges were scientifically impossible. They also agreed that what really happens there is hard to explain." — Kaitlyn Tiffany for The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/03/haarp-weather-conspiracies/686264/?src=longreads #weather #conspiracy #science #haarp #journalism
"Practically overnight, we took an ancient vice—long regarded as soul-rotting and civilizationally ruinous—put it on everyone’s phone, and made it as normal and frictionless as checking the weather. What could possibly go wrong?" —McKay Coppins for The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/04/online-sports-betting-app-addiction/686061/
#Betting #SportsBetting #Gambling #GamblingAddiction #Journalism
"I’ve wandered into the heart of a fabled forest whose inhabitants both control and are controlled by their landscape, fates entwined." In a new feature, Kendra Atleework explores the Black Forest on the cusp of transformation. https://longreads.com/2026/03/12/into-the-darkness/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social #travel #climate #forest #trees #germany #history #journalism
"Pixar isn’t just dithering about diversity; it has become visibly scared of children themselves." —Eli Cugini for The Baffler
https://thebaffler.com/latest/problem-child-cugini/?src=longreads
"Everything we can save is worth saving. Everything we can do is worth doing. We’ve already lost a lot, but we don’t have to lose everything. We don’t have to surrender." @RebeccaSolnit speaks with David Marchese for The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/magazine/rebecca-solnit-interview.html