This week’s installment features stories by Lee van der Voo, Adam Gopnik, Surabhi Ranganathan, Masha Udensiva-Brenner, and Mikey O’Connell.
nature
Encountering the High Arctic
“This land has the ability to shape-shift, defying depth perception, and it occurs to me now that I will be very hard to spot from the air, if it comes to that.”
Earth Day Reads: A Longreads Collection on the Environment, Climate Change & Conservation
This April 22, dive into these thoughtful essays, reading lists, and recommended reads on the climate crisis, wildfires, and water management.
A Day in the Life of an Oak Tree, from Mistle Thrush in the Morning to Mice at Midnight
“The pollen of the catkins is sweet on the proboscis of the oak-mining bee, too.”
There’s Nothing Unnatural About a Computer
“James Bridle’s Ways of Being wants us to take a fresh look at nature’s intelligence.”
Nature Isn’t Called ‘the Wild’ for Nothing: A Queer Ecology Reading List
Media coverage of the natural world rarely acknowledges it, but queerness exists everywhere we look. Homosexuality can be found in 1,500 species. In the wild, there are also examples of asexuality, gender fluidity, polyamory, and sexual voraciousness, including gender-swapping fish, sadomasochist snails, genderqueer lions, birthing male seahorses, partially asexual ants, same-sex songbirds and flamingos, aroused […]
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
An unjust police killing. Nature reclamation in the fossil fuel era. Surviving a bear attack. The underbelly of the antiquities trade. And for a well-earned dessert, the legacy of the world’s first breakout video game. 1. Police Killed His Son. Prosecutors Charged the Teen’s Friends With His Murder Meg O’Connor | The Appeal & Phoenix […]
An Icelandic Town Goes All Out to Save Baby Puffins
“Kids and senior citizens alike rally to rescue beloved young seabirds that have lost their bearings.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week’s edition highlights stories by Bench Ansfield, Justin A. Davis, Wright Thompson, Lucy Jones, and April Nowell.