Human ingenuity in the face of crumbling infrastructure. One man’s quest to save a bird that might already be extinct. The cultural schism dividing a major musical genre. A personal essay braiding space and family. And a jungle trek gone horribly, horribly awry. These are our editors’ favorite reads of the week. 1. The Balkans’ […]
family
They Followed Doctors’ Orders. Then Their Children Were Taken Away.
“Federal law has put thousands of women on anti-addiction medications into an impossible bind: Give up your treatment or risk losing your baby.”
I Tried to Forget My Whole Life. I’m Glad I Failed.
The hindsight of an adulthood autism diagnosis.
We Were Known For Our Rivers
“A grieving daughter channels family memories along the Nueces.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week we are sharing stories from Jessica Wilkerson, Meg Bernhard, Nicholas Hune-Brown, Jiayang Fan, and Alexander Wells.
Enslaved potter David Drake searched for his family. More than 150 years later, they’ve found him.
“‘He was sending these messages,’ said Daisy Whitner, whom genealogists have identified as a descendent of Drake.”
Documents
“I have no status inside or outside any clear borders unless I consider my mother’s uterus my original country.”
Extraction
“When your great-grandparents grew up in Stalin’s terror-famine, your grandparents in the Holocaust, and your parents in a straddle between totalitarianism and democracy, you grew up confused about pain.”