Sharing/publishing the best longform stories (#longreads) since 2009. Sister site of @Atavist. Mastodon: @longreads@mastodon.world. Bluesky: @longreads.com
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1996: A YMCA employee spent an hour trying every phone line in the building to help get a family online.
2026: The family that once ran a phone cord to a 7-Eleven backroom now talks on platforms that eavesdrop on what we say.
What we lost when the internet changed: longreads.com/2026/09/22/fam…
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We’ve got a new batch of top-notch stories for your weekend reading. In this week’s Top 5:
* The cuckoo’s nest (@guardian)
* Fruitful work (@orion_magazine)
* Keys and locks (@newyorker)
* Commander in fief (@theeconomist)
* Perfect sound forever (@nplusonemag)
longreads.com/2026/09/25/top…
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Want to support our original features and receive our Top 5 in your inbox every Friday? Become a Longreads Member! longreads.com/join/?utm_sour…
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Longreads retweeted
We asked the staff at the JFK Presidential Library if we could park the motorhome in their lot overnight. They said yes, then locked the gate behind us for the night.
Nobody had a policy for that. Someone had a key and decided yes.
longreads.com/2026/09/22/fam…
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Longreads retweeted
In 1997 we presented our journy to 400 educators at a U.S. Dept of Education conference in Chicago. The paper is still in the federal ERIC database.
We thought we were describing the future of education. We were describing a year that couldn't happen now. longreads.com/2026/09/22/fam…
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Longreads retweeted
Eating Alone - Soggy fries, ghost kitchens, and a $19 bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich: what we’ve actually gained on the path to convenience.
longreads.com/2026/09/15/con… via @longreads
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"He told his parents he was on football trips or staying with friends; in reality he was holed up with drug users and armed with a machete. —Max Daly for The Guardian #longreads
theguardian.com/news/ng-inte…
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"The word audiophile — etymologically, one who 'loves to hear'— has a wine-sipping pretension that I hate, but sometimes an ugly shoe fits." @cgvanderburg for @nplusonemag nplusonemag.com/issue-54/ess…
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"Job one, for anybody writing a book—for anybody writing a story of any kind, of any length—is to get the reader to that last word." @EarlSwift1 on proportionality for the Creative Nonfiction Podcast with Brendan O'Meara:
longreads.com/2026/09/24/pro…
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"Maybe it did make me look, as my friend suggested, tough. At the very least, it gave me an air of wildness. Or maybe it was because I was without dental insurance and acceptance was the easiest path." @joshuabodwell for @theamscho theamericanscholar.org/my-tw…
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Longreads retweeted
It's still online. The homepage still links to AltaVista, HotBot, and WebCrawler.
"We were doing something that had no name and no manual, and we were doing it over a dial-up modem while living in a motorhome."
@Mark_Blondin and Betsy Blondin launched a family travel blog in 1996 on an internet that no longer exists.
They reflect on that journey—and what we’ve lost—in this week's @longreads essay: longreads.com/2026/09/22/fam…
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"No one likes to be told how to feel about something. And if you doubt that, just go ahead. Try and tell someone how to feel." Alexander Chee recounts his time as Annie Dillard's student for @themorningnews longreads.com/2026/09/22/ann…
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"Perhaps it’s easier for some to imagine relocating humanity to Mars than relocating sediment to save New Orleans."
Brad Bolman for @PioneerWorks_: pioneerworks.org/broadcast/w…
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Longreads retweeted
October 4, 1996: three kids, a golden retriever, and a desktop computer bolted to the floor of a motorhome. Five miles out of town, the engine quit.
Betsy and I wrote about the 25,000 miles after that for @Longreads.
longreads.com/2026/09/22/fam…
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"We were doing something that had no name and no manual, and we were doing it over a dial-up modem while living in a motorhome."
@Mark_Blondin and Betsy Blondin launched a family travel blog in 1996 on an internet that no longer exists.
They reflect on that journey—and what we’ve lost—in this week's @longreads essay: longreads.com/2026/09/22/fam…
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Longreads retweeted
What we settle for in the name of convenience
longreads.com/2026/09/15/con…
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Longreads retweeted
Takedown on the nonsense lives we live
Excerpt from "Against Convenience: Embracing Friction in an Age of Endless Ease" by Gabe Bullard
longreads.com/2026/09/15/con…
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Q: What’s one longread that you can’t stop thinking about?
A: Michael Paterniti’s “The House that Thurman Munson Built.” It’s got everything that interests me as a reader and writer: tragedy, memory, and examining what athletes mean to us at different ages.
A Q&A with Roberto José Andrade Franco: longreads.com/2026/09/17/que…
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"There’s no way my friends—my peers!—have the money for a down payment on, say, a million-dollar apartment. Except: they do."
Anna Holmes for @newyorker: newyorker.com/news/the-weeke…
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Longreads retweeted
Shetland's Most Wanted makes the latest @Longreads Top 5 alongside stories of payday loan apps, playtime, and ostriches.
longreads.com/2026/09/18/top…
@The_Fence_Mag
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