Novelist Martha McPhee was prescribed Xanax after she had a panic attack in 2006. She started off with a small dose, usually a half a pill or so, used only after an attack or to help her sleep. Little did she know that she was starting an addiction that would last 17 years, one that would put her at additional risk of developing dementia, and one that...

This story was funded by our members. Join Longreads and help us to support more writers.In this week’s edition:• Perilous industry, meet unsung hero • The mother of forensic science • A brilliant critical essay about AI and art • Saving a town by ignoring the government • Homesteading, mindfully1. The CanaryMichael Lewis | The Washington Post | September...

Michael Lewis has created a singular career out of finding outsized stories hidden in plain sight. Here, he goes deeper to unearth a fascinating profile of Chris Mark, a man who has worked for decades within the federal government, improving the job safety of miners—one field-tested equation at a time. On Dec. 19, 1984, a roof collapsed inside the Wilberg...

Shane Mitchell remembers her great aunt Aileen, a woman born in 1897 who shucked off the limiting gender expectations of her time, leaving the south for Chicago to earn a master’s degree at Smith College School for Social Work. Mitchell pieces together bits of her great aunt’s life from childhood visits and insight gleaned from letters, postcards, photos,...

This story was funded by our members. Join Longreads and help us to support more writers.Raleigh McCool | Longreads | September 5, 2024 | 3,082 words (11 minutes)It’s my first day of spin class, and I am in the darkest corner of the room. My feet are crammed into shoes I rent from the front desk—little black Velcro things with cleats on the bottoms....

Windell Curole oversaw a levee built in Lafourche parish, Louisiana that protected his community from the floodwaters of Hurricane Ida in 2021. Typically, the US federal government’s army corps of engineers dictates specifications for such monumental undertakings. Curole built his levee 18-ft high—bypassing the corps’s insistence on a wider levee reaching...