how to get smart again: finding longform articles & essays
a comprehensive guide on longform journalism: favorite sites, newsletters, and a starter pack of my favorite articles
what is longform journalism and why should you read it?
Much of my reading comes from published books that I can hold in my two hands, but it also comes from longform articles. Longform journalism is essentially an article that is a long read, typically ranging between 2,000 to over 10,000 words. The content can vary, from investigative reporting to personal essays, from interviews to short fiction published in magazines and newspapers.
Articles almost always cover one subject and that one subject in depth; the lengthy word count allows for more detailed, developed pieces of writing that have room to expand and truly breathe. Most pieces include context which I would usually have to search separately, but delves into its history and social implications that creates a richer reading experience.
In the last year or so, I’ve begun reaching for longform essays often. It’s long enough to feel as satisfactory as a good nonfiction book, but it is also short enough that I can read it on my commute to work or other places. They are also just massively underrated outlets for reading—they are incredibly diverse in content and style and very informative. Articles pack the same depth of analysis and research as nonfiction books while being more accessible due to their short length.
I constantly strive to keep myself educated and knowledgeable even if I’m not in a classroom setting. Ever since I have made it a mission to start educating myself as much as I can on various topics, I’ve also tried to find as many good magazines as I can to read from. Longform articles fill that education void for me, so I always try to make it a habit of reading at least one article daily, even when I don't have time to read actual books. It also increases my attention span (something I direly need to do because social media doomscrolling has been killing it). I treat these essays and articles like brain food, so it's always fun to learn something new.
where do you find articles & essays?
This list is constantly ever expanding because there is a cornucopia of fantastic news sites and magazines, but I will try to include as many sites as I can remember. I do love reading physical copies of magazines, although it is impossible to have a subscription to all of them. Currently, I have a subscription to The Paris Review and London Review of Books that I got as a package deal for the memorial day sale.
Currently, the sites I reach for the most are: Aeon (all free articles, amazing depth and expertise and diversity), The Paris Review (especially for their amazing specific column archives and author interviews), and London Review of Books (for their book reviews and author profiles).
For those with no subscriptions: I am not promoting this, but you can search archive sites for free, or by putting http://archive.is/newest/ in front of every article URL!
Here is a big list of around 40 newspapers, magazines, and sites that have excellent long-form articles and never let me down.
Aeon: The best free magazine out there. Aeon covers essays about philosophy, psychology, science, society and culture. Every article is so well researched and written. So many of my favorite articles of all time are from this site, and everything feels like brain food. Here is an article about sulking, one about nostalgia, and one about female friendships.
Nautilus: A science magazine that ventures into adjacent fields such as anthropology and geology. Most articles are very readable even for someone who has no background in science past high school (me) and connects many of their topics to humanities subjects as well. Here is their 2025 summer reading list.
The Paris Review: A high-brow-ish literary magazine that covers art and literature. The Paris Review also regularly interviews authors and these always end up being in depth and so meaningful. I particularly love the Hue’s Hues column, in which Katy Kelleher (one of my favorite journalists ever) writes about specific colors and their associations and histories. I also love these annotated author diaries and the Feminize Your Canon column. There’s so much to love about this magazine, and I always find more underrated gems the more I dig!
Orion Magazine: Here is Orion’s objective—“It is Orion’s fundamental conviction that humans are morally responsible for the world in which we live, and that the individual comes to sense this responsibility as he or she develops a personal bond with nature.” Not quite a nature magazine, but much of its essays are imbued in nature. Here is a June essay on dandelions I loved.
The Cut: I have a guilty pleasure for the devastatingly embarrassing essays that go viral on Twitter. Here are some you can read when you’re bored (and that makes you think ‘you could not torture this out of me’): “The Case for Marrying an Older Man”, “Should I Leave My Husband? The Lure of Divorce”, “The Day I Put $50,000 in a Shoe Box and Handed It to a Stranger”
Literary Hub: Not only is Lithub favorited and bookmarked on my phone, it feels like a catch-all for anything literature related. It crafts beautiful and hyper-specific reading lists, recommends great books, and publishes unique and interesting literary essays. They publish really great articles regarding writing and the craft of writing as well.