People are writing and creating more text than at any other moment in human history. We also have myriad devices that allow us to read that text — tablets, laptops and phones which are causing us to walk to our deaths and ruin our posture — but catching up on all that reading can be daunting. (I recommend an app called Pocket.)
This year was no different. There was lots of great #content to be read, through blogs, newspapers, even Twitter.
There were lots of great pieces on sports, modern relationships, celebrities, politics and music.
Of course you can’t talk about the year in longform journalism without mentioning the demise of one of the great pop culture websites: RIP Grantland. I’ll miss it but on the bright side my daily productivity has increased 57 percent.
Charlotte Shane / Matter
The problem with “only fucking” isn’t that sex is dangerous or wrong outside the confines of certain social containers like the boyfriend label or an engagement ring. It’s that in 2015 and before, casual sex, as practiced by straight Americans, was routinely bereft of physical pleasure, mutual respect, and interpersonal maturity. Hook ups were supposed to be fun but they… well, weren’t.
“Inside Jeremy Lin’s life after Linsanity and the New York Knicks”
Pablo Torre / ESPN Magazine
Hard to believe Linsanity was over three years ago.
“Augusta National is a Fake Southern Wonderland Inspired by Trench Warfare”
Spencer Hall / SB Nation
Hilarious take on a tradition unlike any other.
“The Third Revelation of Father John Misty”
Sean Fennessey / Grantland
Everyone grows up eventually.
“Ask Polly: Am I Too Smart for My Own Good?”
Heather Havrilesky / New York Magazine
All of Havrilesky’s “advice” columns are worth reading but this is the best of the bunch.
“Has Europe Reached the Breaking Point?”
Jim Yardley / New York Times Magazine
Is the European Union experiment doomed?
“The Late, Great Stephen Colbert”
Joel Lovell / GQ Magazine
Stephen Colbert on the eve of his Late Show takeover.
“Ann Coulter is a Human Being”
Mitchell Sunderland / Vice Magazine
I AM VAST I CONTAIN MULTITUDES
Kate Dries / Jezebel
The kids are not alright.
“What Kind of Person Would Vote for Donald Trump? These People”
Drew Magary / GQ Magazine
An in-depth look at the political base of our next president.
Rachel Syme / Grantland
Who says stoners are lazy?
Ryan Lizza / The New Yorker
Inside the plot against John Beohner and the battle for the conservative soul of the U.S. House of Representatives.
“The Katrina Disaster That Hasn’t Ended”
Michael Grunwald / Politico
This was the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and for the occasion lots of people wrote retrospectives. I didn’t read many of them because I suspected they were overly sentimental or about jazz and New Orlean’s resiliency or George W. Bush, which is fine of course. But this article tackles a problem that played perhaps the largest role in the death and destruction resulting from that terrible storm: the self-serving relationship between Congress and the Army Corps of Engineers.
Louis Menand / The New Yorker
How the greatest writer of her generation became a radical.
“The Public Life and Private Doubts of Al Sharpton”
Eli Saslow / The Washington Post
Sharpton in Winter.
Alana Massey / Matter
For well you know that it’s a fool who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder
Jada Yuan / New York Magazine
Let’s talk about sex, baby.
Bruce Feiler / The New York Times
Practical advice on how to be a friend to those in crises.
“The True Story Behind ‘Zola,’ the Epic Twitter Story Too Crazy to be Real”
Caitlin Dewey / The Washington Post
Background on the greatest story every written 140 characters at a time.
Bryan Phillips / Grantland
Sometimes it’s all about the journey, ya know.
“Da Art of Storytellin’ (A Prequel)”
Kiese Laymon / The Oxford American
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