“Tech and the liberal arts have always been at war. Don’t assume Silicon Valley will win.”
wired
Best Of 2023: Features
At the time of this writing, Longreads editors have created nearly 650 recommendations in 2023, and just about every one of them can be considered a feature. However, you’ll find that the stories contained herein are features in the classic sense: marriages of deep reporting and indelible prose. Some are light, others emotionally taxing. Their […]
Best of 2023: Investigations
Our top picks in the investigative reporting category.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring reads from Scott Huler, Sophie Elmhirst, Lauren Smiley, Brian Payton, and Caity Weaver.
How Citizen Surveillance Ate San Francisco
“When a homeless man attacked a former city official, footage of the onslaught became a rallying cry. Then came another video, and another—and the story turned inside out.”
25-Year Lasagna, Special Ops Oatmeal, and the Survival Food Boom
“He says he has about a year’s worth of food, stashed in various locations in his property, so that if someone breaks in to steal it, they would not be able to take all of it at once.”
Watch This Guy Work, and You’ll Finally Understand the TikTok Era
“The creator economy is fragmented and chaotic. Talent manager Ursus Magana can (almost) make sense of it, with a frenetic formula for gaming the algorithms.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring stories from Margaret Talbot, Wiam El-Tamami, Virginia Heffernan, Dave Denison, and Meilan Solly.
What If the Robots Were Very Nice While They Took Over the World?
“First it was chess and Go. Now AI can beat us at Diplomacy, the most human of board games. The way it wins offers hope that maybe AI will be a delight.”
Confessions of a Viral AI Writer
“Despite my success with AI-generated stories, I’m not sure they are good for writers—or writing itself.”