Recent editors’ picks

On Walking

Ira Sukrungruang | The Sun | December 2025 | 3,018 words

“To love walking is to love the body, and this has been a barrier for me.”

The Dead Mall Society

Lana Hall | Hazlitt | December 10, 2025 | 2,889 words

“Standing in the wreckage of these spaces unlocks a sensation people often crave, but can’t name.”

If a Tree Falls

Rosa Lyster | Harper’s Magazine | December 17, 2025 | 6,939 words

“The trial of the Sycamore Gap killers.”

The Birth Keepers

Sirin Kale and Lucy Osborne | The Guardian | November 22, 2025 | 8,556 words

“Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births–now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world.”

The Strange Fate of Flight 2069

Kate Mossman | The New Statesman | December 11, 2025 | 6,764 words

“Months before 9/11 a passenger seized control of a Boeing 747 and nearly crashed it into the Sahara. Everyone survived but no one quite recovered. How do you measure the cost of a disaster that didn’t happen?”

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

Recommending stories from Kate Mossman, Luke Winkie, Lou Stoppard, Sirin Kale and Lucy Osborne, and Rosa Lyster.

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

Recommending stories from Yasmin Tayag, Elliott Woods, David Ramsey, Larissa Diakiw, and A.S. Hamrah.

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

Recommending stories by B. ‘Toastie’ Oaster, James Vincent, Michael Adno, Caroline Tracey, and Elena Mary.

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

This week we are celebrating stories from Anya Groner; Kiese Laymon; Brittany Wallman, Aaron Leibowitz, Shradha Dinesh, Susan Merriam, Daniel Rivero, and Joshua Ceballos; Jennifer Justus; and Robert Rubsam.

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

Showcasing notable stories from Joanne McNeil, Lindsey Liles, Soyonbo Borgin, Frank Chimero, and Holly Haworth.

Recent editors’ picks

Feast Your Eyes on Japan’s Fake Food

Lauren Collins | The New Yorker | December 15, 2025 | 2,826 words

“However persuasive they might be as facsimiles, shokuhin sampuru are subjective interpretations, seeking not only to replicate dishes but to intensify the feelings associated with the real thing.”

Lost Vegas

Luke Winkie | Slate | November 18, 2025 | 5,375 words

“Everyone inside America’s most flailing destination city has a theory for what’s wrong. Now I have my own.”

St. John the Wondermaker

Rebecca E. Williams | The Georgia Review | October 14, 2025 | 2,125 words

“Since April, on the past five fourth Wednesdays of the month I have driven to St. John the Wondermaker Orthodox Church, in Atlanta’s Grant Park neighborhood, to wash and trim and file the feet of a handful of the city’s 2,200 unhoused men.”

A Total Breakdown of All the Easter Eggs

A.S. Hamrah | New York Review of Books | December 2, 2025 | 5,425 words

“Major film studios embracing AI, newspapers announcing the death of moviegoing, critics devoid of values: all of this can instill a great sense of defeat. We have to write against it.”

Soul Blind

Larissa Diakiw | Hazlitt | October 25, 2025 | 5,238 words

“On interrogating fear and what bats can teach about human connection.”

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