Longreads

An employees-only sign beside a road in Big Ben National Park. There are mountains in the background.
Home for a Season

Living and working in National Parks.

A portrait of the author
Not Like Us

Unpacking the Kendrick Lamar/Drake beef.

a woman pushes a stroller in a forest, and looks at a car atop which stands a wolf
Last Boob Feed

This baby emerged like a lightning bolt onto the scene. Then what?

A pregnant person sits in a darkened room, looking out the window at the constellations.
The Body She's In

We have more tools than ever to tell us about our children before they're born. But disability screenings raise complicated—potentially dangerous—possibilities. 

orange snake and red mushroom
A Hairsplitter’s Odyssey

Probe all the nuances, niceties, and subtle shades of meaning your little heart desires.

post card
Dark Matter

For twenty years, PostSecret has broadcast suburban America’s hidden truths—and revealed the limits of limitless disclosure. 

Two people sitting on chairs with their backs to each other and to their surroundings, with the smoke stacks of Auschwitz in the background and the smoking rubble of Gaza reflected in the pool in the foreground.
The Making of the Genocidal Mind

The genocidal mind is not the preserve of cartoon monsters in history books. It is a collusion of psychological habits groomed and grown in people like us when we fixate on our private gardens.

Dickie Greenleaf stares out a window but the reflection is Tom Ripley
My Funny Valentine

Back in high school a friend had called me Matt Damon in the drawl of Team America, but the connection to Tom Ripley felt more psychic, fundamental.

A chicken coop depicted in the moonlight
Chicken Tender

I learned to ignore the doubt that lapped at my ankles, a wave that rose every time I kissed him goodbye, left town for work or travel, and remembered, with a shock, how happily whole I felt alone.

A rendering of Anna Kashfi looks directly at the viewer. She wears a green shirt.
Illegal Bride

Days after Anna Kashfi wed the actor Marlon Brando, doubts about her purported Indian heritage surfaced, destroying her Hollywood career and branding her a liar. The truth was more complicated than anyone knew.