I collect longform journalism and essays like other people collect postcards: each one arrives with its own landscape, characters, and insistence. In this installment I pull together pieces that ranged from a competitive speed puzzling scene to a celebration of restaurant bread, and from media criticism to an unsettling look at displaced professionals training the tools that may replace them. The column takes its playful name from Emily Gould’s tumblr, Things I Ate That I Love, and the feature image is credited to Manchester Daily Express — small, specific anchors for a diverse reading list.
My picks are not arranged by theme so much as by what lingered with me: a line, an anecdote, a report that bent my thinking. You will find full citations below for each piece so you can read them in full: Leila Jordan in The Guardian (April 2026), Nathan J. Robinson in Current Affairs (September 2026), Caity Weaver in The Atlantic (April 2026), and others across outlets like Vox and New York Magazine. I share short reactions and what I took away, not exhaustive summaries — think of this as a companion map to the articles themselves.
Why this column exists
At its heart this series is a folder for things I want you to find: long essays that reward time and attention. I try to spotlight pieces that combine strong reporting with a distinct voice, whether that voice carries nostalgia, skepticism, or sharp argumentation. Many of the selections are longform journalism or cultural criticism; several are memoir-tinged features. I use oral history and other modes when they illuminate an era or a creative project, as in Trey Taylor’s piece on Girl, Interrupted in The Face (December 2019), which reassembles a cast that would soon become stars.
Highlights from recent reads
Puzzles, performances, and food obsessions
Leila Jordan’s report for The Guardian (April 2026) about competing at a speed puzzling championship made me want to sit down with a thousand-piece puzzle again; the piece balances vivid description of a niche sport with the quiet human stakes that crop up in small competitions. Caity Weaver’s Atlantic feature (April 2026), titled “I Found It: The Best Free Restaurant Bread In America,” is an absolute pleasure: it weaves food history, personal family moments, Las Vegas dining rooms, and an affectionate critique of chain favorites like the Cheddar Bay biscuit. Her knack for linking the personal and the culinary makes the piece feel both expansive and intimately familiar.
Media critiques, histories, and unsettling futures
Nathan J. Robinson’s essay in Current Affairs (September 2026), “The Worst Magazine In America,” mounts a fierce critique of The Atlantic and its editorial tendencies; Robinson argues that certain ideological patterns recur in ways that matter politically. On a different register, Frankie de la Creataz’s Longreads essay (May 2019) on the rise and decline of publications devoted to women’s sports recounts Billie Jean King’s ambitious magazine, tracing how it drew some 70,000 subscribers in its first year (1974–1984, with later iterations through 2000) yet still struggled to survive. These pieces together point to how media ecosystems shape what gets attention and why.
Patterns, worries, and delights
Two recent features lodged in my head for their disturbing implications. Josh Dzieza’s New York Magazine story (March 2026) about laid-off scientists and lawyers who are training AI to do their jobs is a sobering read: it raises ethical and labor questions that ripple far beyond any single newsroom. Similarly, Kenny Torrellas’ Vox essay (February 2026) arguing the “big case against owning small pets” prompted me to rethink the assumptions behind keeping animals like hamsters, birds, and snakes; his reporting centers welfare questions that are easy to dismiss in everyday life. Both pieces are reminders that good journalism can be an uncomfortable mirror.
Takeaways and where to read
A quick reading list
If you want a short itinerary: start with Leila Jordan in The Guardian (April 2026) for a human portrait of a quirky sport; move to Caity Weaver in The Atlantic (April 2026) for rich, appetite-driven reportage; read Nathan J. Robinson in Current Affairs (September 2026) for a forceful institutional critique; and then fold in the Vox and New York Magazine pieces (February 2026 and March 2026 respectively) for argumentative and investigative counterpoints. Also worth revisiting is Trey Taylor’s oral history in The Face (December 2019) on Girl, Interrupted, and the Longreads essay (May 2019) about feminist sports history. Patricia Cornwell’s Wikipedia page was also on my list as a cultural artifact worth glancing at while reading these pieces.
Ultimately I hope this list prompts curiosity rather than conclusiveness. The best longform writing makes you carry a sentence or image through your day; it rearranges attention. If any of these notes nudges you to open a link, that’s the point: to pass on the pleasure of discovery and the nagging questions that great essays leave behind.