What Bobby McIlvaine Left Behind
Grief, conspiracy theories, and one family’s search for meaning in the two decades since 9/11.
Longform Best of 2021
Top Ten
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The Other Afghan Women
In the countryside, the endless killing of civilians turned women against the occupiers who claimed to be helping them.
3
How I Helped My Dad Die
His body wrecked by ALS, the author’s father insisted that his death, like his life, was his to control.
4
On Succession, Jeremy Strong Doesn’t Get the Joke
“I take him as seriously as I take my own life,” he says of his character, Kendall Roy.
5
One by One, My Friends Were Sent to the Camps
A first-person account of the genocide in Xinjiang.
6
The Subversive Joy of Lil Nas X's Gay Pop Stardom
A profile of a new icon.
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The Jessica Simulation
The death of the woman he loved was too much to bear. Could a mysterious website allow him to speak with her once more?
8
Who Is the Bad Art Friend?
Art often draws inspiration from life—but what happens when it’s your life?
9
Ghosts
“Here I should conjure my sister for you. Here I should describe her, so that you feel her absence as I do—so that you’re made ghostly by it, too. But, though I’m a writer, I’ve never been able to conjure her.”
10
The Journalist and the Pharma Bro
Why did Christie Smythe upend her life and stability for Martin Shkreli, one of the least-liked men in the world?
