Longreads
@longreads.com
Sharing and publishing the best longform stories at longreads.com since 2009. Sister site of @atavist.com. Become a member: https://longreads.com/join/ Submit to us: https://longreads.com/submissions
"The man ground the glands of 10 cane toads into a paste, added lime water and ash, then boiled the mixture overnight." The fascinating and mostly wrong history of the psychedelic toad: longreads.com/2026/08/04/p... @doubledaybooks.bsky.social
Magical Mystery Toads - Longreads
The long, tangled, and mostly wrong history of the psychedelic toad.
longreads.com
"Doctors took Mei for a full-body CT scan and then rushed her to the intensive care unit. Her brave face had begun to crack. 'Mom, I want to go home,' she told her mother, before vanishing into the ward." Brendan Borrell for @science.org and @retractionwatch.com: www.science.org/content/arti...
Exclusive: Death of girl in Chinese gene-editing trial was never made public
Parents want accountability after study went disastrously wrong, Science and Retraction Watch investigation reveals
science.org
"Dubiously sourced accounts followed of Australians who died after drinking toad tea and a man supposedly being imprisoned in South America on toad-licking charges." An excerpt from Kimon de Greef's THE EGO TRIP 🐸 📚, out from @doubledaybooks.bsky.social today: longreads.com/2026/08/04/p...
Magical Mystery Toads - Longreads
The long, tangled, and mostly wrong history of the psychedelic toad.
longreads.com
"He had searched her car hundreds of times over a span of about 13 months, sometimes dozens of times a week, the audit records showed." @drewharwell.com, @douglasmac.bsky.social, and @aaronschaffer.com for @washingtonpost.com
washingtonpost.com
"All my algorithms are tuned to perfection. . . . I spend so much time within a prison of my own preferences that it has become a relief to be offered things I would never want." We're all living in the world QVC built, writes Hannah Engler Harvey @longreads.com: longreads.com/2026/07/30/q...
You and Me and QVC - Longreads
How a home shopping channel became the soundtrack to a friendship.
longreads.com
"We have the festering snobbishness of transplants. New York City is our home, but our impossible aspiration is to have never lived anywhere else." NEW on Longreads, by Hannah Engler Harvey:
You and Me and QVC - Longreads
How a home shopping channel became the soundtrack to a friendship.
longreads.com
I love when people write about HSN and QVC
Longreads@longreads.com · 5d ago"All my algorithms are tuned to perfection. In other words, I spend so much time within a prison of my own preferences that it has become a relief to be offered things I would never want." A new Longreads essay by Hannah Engler Harvey 🛒 🛍️ 📺️
"All my algorithms are tuned to perfection. In other words, I spend so much time within a prison of my own preferences that it has become a relief to be offered things I would never want." A new Longreads essay by Hannah Engler Harvey 🛒 🛍️ 📺️
You and Me and QVC - Longreads
How a home shopping channel became the soundtrack to a friendship.
longreads.com
This week's #longreads Top 5 includes: • In a pickle / @nymag.com • Gut feeling / Taste • King of pain / @newyorker.com • Life (or something like it) / @harpers.bsky.social • For those about to rock / @theatlantic.com longreads.com/2026/07/31/l...
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week - Longreads
In this edition: in a pickle; gut feeling; king of pain; life (or something like it); for those about to rock.
longreads.com
"The real world is both tiring and tiresome for him, Lewis went on to explain: too many unwritten rules, too many norms that don’t quite make sense." —Eve Livingston for Dispatch
Meet Britain's hikikomori
A growing number of young Brits are withdrawing from society • Some don't leave the house for months • We met their families
dispatch-media.com
"Whatever the reason, it’s now de rigueur to be regular."—Linni Kral for Taste
This, Too, Shall Pass
Our guts have never been more optimized—but have the scat chats gone too far?
tastecooking.com
"Ghost Town has stepped in to address a decades-old problem with an unconventional approach." @hayesdavenport.bsky.social for @lamaterial.com: lamaterial.com/p/ghost-town...
Inside Ghost Town: The Firm Clearing Venice's Encampments
An unusual private company takes on homelessness — with persistence, cash payments, and a team that includes ex-gang members. Clients love them. The people they move do not.
lamaterial.com
"We are all living inside the world that QVC made, the commingling of identity and acquisition." A decades-old shopping channel, a lifelong best friend, and the strange comfort of watching people sell things you'll never buy. New from Hannah Engler Harvey: longreads.com/2026/07/30/q...
You and Me and QVC - Longreads
How a home shopping channel became the soundtrack to a friendship.
longreads.com
"I love dusk, the moment when the sun has set but the scattered clouds in the sky are still all lit up in oranges and yellows and pinks, where the sky feels so alive but the light moves so fleetingly that every time you blink, it looks totally different. Maybe the moon is just rising..."
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring s.e. smith - Longreads
The All My Dead Cats and Other Losses author and Flytrap co-founder on grief, breaking and fixing things, and Alice Wong.
longreads.com
"There is chicken on the dining table and a pot of rice, both miraculously still steaming on top of the lazy Susan. For kids like me, home is the warmth that outlasts the travel." —Joseph Trinidad longreads.com/2026/06/16/l... @sarabandebooks.bsky.social
The Cousin Returns - Longreads
On coming home to the Philippines.
longreads.com
"Sometimes, Sharpie on scraps, done quickly and cheaply, says more than an AI-generated image ever could." @bettina.bsky.social for @eater.bsky.social: www.eater.com/trends/97508...
In the Age of AI, the Analog Restaurant Feels Radical
Some restaurants are leaning into handmade touches, as AI-generated food photos and flyers become commonplace
eater.com
A: Sound or silence? (And if sound, what sound?) Q: These days I’ve been alternating between ambient music and progressive psytrance—it felt appropriate for the book. Kimon de Greef, author of the forthcoming THE EGO TRIP, answers our latest Longreads Questionnaire: longreads.com/2026/07/28/q...
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Kimon de Greef - Longreads
The Ego Trip author on the sea, the pull of South Africa, and how his ecology background shapes the stories he tells.
longreads.com
"In what probably struck friends and family as an act of lunacy, I quit my day job as an editor at this magazine and became a part-time waller." Matt Seaton for @theatlantic.com
The True History of New England’s Stone Walls
Why we love them, and why I build them
theatlantic.com
Yes! Very full circle moment, since this essay is also mentioned in the book AND @longreads.com just hosted me for a delightful Q&A.
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring s.e. smith - Longreads
The All My Dead Cats and Other Losses author and Flytrap co-founder on grief, breaking and fixing things, and Alice Wong.
longreads.com
Q: What words do you overuse? A: “Marginal,” “entrenched,” “booming,” “illicit.” Since writing about psychedelics, “radically” and “profoundly.” Kimon de Greef, author of THE EGO TRIP 📚, answers this week's Longreads Questionnaire: longreads.com/2026/07/28/q... @doubledaybooks.bsky.social
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Kimon de Greef - Longreads
The Ego Trip author on the sea, the pull of South Africa, and how his ecology background shapes the stories he tells.
longreads.com
longreads.com/2026/07/14/v... what a great long read. Now I need to read this book. I have a nice record collection and always wondered about the process and how it sits in our world... anyway, worth reading
Vinyl in the Veins - Longreads
Behind the nostalgia lies an uncomfortable truth: Every record is made of oil.
longreads.com
“People talk about vinyl and wax, and it sounds cool, but there is no getting around that vinyl records are PVC and every one that I make adds to the plastic in the world.” Vinyl in the Veins:
Vinyl in the Veins - Longreads
Behind the nostalgia lies an uncomfortable truth: Every record is made of oil.
longreads.com
ICYMI: I have a (fittingly) long author Q&A with @longreads.com that was a joy to work on and will be a pleasure to read! Some of the best questions I've ever gotten in a Q&A.
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring s.e. smith - Longreads
The All My Dead Cats and Other Losses author and Flytrap co-founder on grief, breaking and fixing things, and Alice Wong.
longreads.com
"He wanted to see the night sky as Cleopatra might have seen it." Travis Diehl for @nytimes.com
He’s the Last Great Land Artist You’ve Never Heard Of
Charles Ross spent 50 years building “Star Axis,” a naked-eye observatory in New Mexico. Now his masterwork is ready. How to share it with a changed world?
nytimes.com
In this week's Top 5: • Loving a killer | @theguardian.com • GRASE under fire | Men's Health • The marvelous mundane | @bittersouth.bsky.social • Texas on two wheels | @texashighways.bsky.social • The man who would be T. rex king | @businessweektr.bsky.social longreads.com/2026/07/24/l...
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week - Longreads
In this edition: loving a killer; GRASE under fire; the marvelous mundane; Texas on two wheels; and the man who would be T. rex king.
longreads.com
"Once everyone was back at school on Tuesday, the high schoolers lawyered up during their lunch hour." Ara Rosenthal for @WIRED.com
A Teen Reporter Searched for His Community in the Epstein Files. Adults Freaked Out
An Instagram post turned one California student newspaper into a free-speech flash point. The students say they were just doing their homework.
wired.com
"What shall we say of today? Better yet, what shall I say of today? That I will try to do better, perhaps. But Beckett hasn’t much patience for such resolutions." Robert Zaretsky for @theamscho.bsky.social
Beckett the Prophet - The American Scholar
We are all, it seems, still waiting for Godot
theamericanscholar.org
I'm up at @longreads.com talking about shower beers, the best gift I ever received, and which writers I turn to when I'm needing some inspiration.
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring s.e. smith - Longreads
The All My Dead Cats and Other Losses author and Flytrap co-founder on grief, breaking and fixing things, and Alice Wong.
longreads.com
"So much of what I write about is dark and intense. The people I get to spend time with to tell these stories? I feel like my life is a lot richer with them in it." —@pamelacolloff.bsky.social in conversation with @brendanomeara.bsky.social for the CNF Podcast longreads.com/2026/07/23/c...
How Reporting Creates Change: A Conversation with Pamela Colloff - Longreads
Writing is always going to be hard and why it's worth the struggle.
longreads.com
"I really try to reject the mindset of guilty pleasures; culturally this whole concept is structured around shame and the suggestion that you should feel bad for finding pleasure and joy." Read the latest @longreads.com questionnaire with @sesmith.lol: longreads.com/2026/07/21/q...
The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring s.e. smith - Longreads
The All My Dead Cats and Other Losses author and Flytrap co-founder on grief, breaking and fixing things, and Alice Wong.
longreads.com