This story was funded by our members. Join Longreads and help us to support more writers. Emily Zebel | Longreads | May 23, 2024 | 3,929 words At some point, I realize, shivering, that I am in exile. Self-imposed exile. I know the weather report, but I don’t believe it until I’m in it. Trans-Canada Highway rain is miserable...

I have a 💩 obsession. This isn’t new to anyone who has followed my picks over the past 10 years, some of which have been compiled in reading lists (“Really Good Shit,” “Braindump: A Reading List on the Future of Sanitation, Toilets, and Bathrooms“). In this Slate story, Luke Winkie reports on the black market for poop—specifically the HumanMicrobes...

Like anyone who remembers Kid Rock from before he became a rap-rock superstar, I’ve thought of his trajectory as I wouldn’t have guessed, but sure, makes sense. That same feeling applies to David Peisner’s ace profile in Rolling Stone, in which he talks to folks throughout Bob Ritchie’s life and finally winds up at the man’s Tennessee compound—where...

Sure, newspapers still have columnists. But the era of the city newspaper columnist has become a particularly artifact-y artifact of when newspaper journalism held real power. (No shots at Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman, but do they really feel like they’re writing as or for New Yorkers?) For The Point, Ross Barkan wrestles with Jimmy Breslin’s long...

Fascinated by and somewhat jealous of the tradwife movement, Amy McCarthy attempts a weekend experiment: to live life in full tradwife mode for 48 hours, with a scrupulously clean house and food made from scratch. The first task on my list was driving to a nearby farm, where I could buy raw milk on-site. Like most folks, I’m pretty skeptical...

In 2014, Elliot Rodger murdered six people, wounded 14 others, and killed himself in Isla Vista, California. The mass shooting, and in particular Rodger’s online associations with the “incel” community, prompted salacious news coverage that painted Rodger as an aberrant monster. In truth, he was an unwell, unstable young man whose actions—like those...