Longreads

Cocooning

“Every testimony, every coming-out story, attempts a transformation of life. But narration is not life itself, exactly, or its transformation; it is a cocooning.”

Girl Genius

She will grow up and leave me and yet never leave me; she will be mine forever, a being I shaped.

The Buddy System

There is nothing quite like it. Surfing is a way of being connected to a deeper deep, an older old.

A Vaccine Dispute Turns Deadly

Misinformation’s tragic toll on one California family.

I’m Never Fine

“As a proponent of transparency, especially one who stands in opposition to the demonization of feeling, I can’t—I won’t—use the word anymore.”

A Murder in Berlin

Crows become familiars for a writer living on the surface of a changing city.

Big Love

There are many kinds of love stories. This one involves a woman and an elephant, and the bond between them spanning nearly 50 years.

All True At Once

You made a fool of the words “feminine” and “masculine” — you were neither, you were both.

Bad Tape

What I learned about judgment from a car thief, a bank robber, and a mysterious VHS.