Longform

Read recent longform news stories on Newser.com

Stories 1 - 20 |  Next >>

What Happens When a Spouse Undergoes a Gender Transition

The AP looks at marriages that have survived such a change

(Newser) - Marissa Lasoff-Santos and the person she would marry quickly fell head over heels in love. Lasoff-Santos was a gay woman. Her girlfriend was a bisexual woman—or so they thought. Now her partner has become her husband, and they both identify as queer. And things are better than ever. "...

After Fleeing FLDS, Running Became Her Saving Grace

Paige Kaptuch of Runner's World looks at how a running club has helped a community heal

(Newser) - When Darlene Barlow Stubbs was growing up in Short Creek, Arizona, she wasn't allowed to have toys, a bike, or even books. Under the new leadership of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints prophet Warren Jeffs, a sect of the Mormon church, strict changes in what was...

Refrigeration Changed Food in Unexpected Ways
Refrigeration
Changed Food
in Unexpected
Ways
longform
Jun 23, 2024 2:00 PM CDT

Refrigeration Changed Food in Unexpected Ways

In the New Yorker , Nicola Twilley looks at how it changed the very flavor

(Newser) - The cheeseburger emerged a century ago, not too long after the dawn of refrigeration, and it's no mere coincidence, writes Nicola Twilley in the New Yorker . If you tried to make one from scratch—harvest grain for the buns, slaughter a cow for the meat, grow some lettuce and...

Newfangled Form of Plastic Recycling Called a 'Delusion'

A ProPublica investigation calls process of pyrolysis an industry-hyped bust

(Newser) - If the plastics industry is to be believed, a new type of chemical recycling called pyrolysis is poised to solve many of the well-documented —and alarming —problems with plastic. The only hitch? Pyrolysis is a "delusion," declares a ProPublica investigation. As journalist Lisa Song explains, pyrolysis...

Amateur Sleuth Uncovers a Wild Stolen Bike Network

Pricey two-wheelers taken in Northwest have been showing up in Mexico

(Newser) - A customized bicycle these days can run $10,000, which goes a long way toward explaining why bike theft has evolved from the "quaint" days of yesteryear into a criminal enterprise, writes Christopher Solomon at Wired . (Think neighborhood-roaming trucks equipped with ladders.) Solomon's story provides an astonishing...

Overlooked Problem: Cops Who Sexually Abuse Kids
Cops Sexually Abuse Kids,
Dodge Prison: Report
longform
Jun 16, 2024 4:25 PM CDT

Cops Sexually Abuse Kids, Dodge Prison: Report

Washington Post investigation finds that it happens more often than you might think

(Newser) - In Nevada, Missouri, a 16-year-old girl interested in becoming a cop started going on ride-alongs with officer Brian Hansen. He would eventually plead guilty to statutory sodomy after state investigators accused him of sexually abusing the teen in his patrol car and at a firing range. Hansen received probation, not...

In St. Louis, a Long Stretch of Unsolved Murders
In St. Louis, a Long Stretch
of Unsolved Murders
longform
Jun 16, 2024 1:15 PM CDT

In St. Louis, a Long Stretch of Unsolved Murders

Marshall Project examines the problem

(Newser) - St. Louis has long been known for having one of the highest murder rates in the nation. An investigation by the Marshall Project reveals a troubling tangent to that: A surprising number of the city's killings over the last decade remain unsolved. The city had approximately 1,900 homicides...

You Probably Know Someone on Steroids
Steroids
Have Become
the New Normal
longform
Jun 16, 2024 9:30 AM CDT

Steroids Have Become the New Normal

Performance-enhancing drugs are everywhere, writes Rosecrans Baldwin in GQ

(Newser) - GQ writer Rosecrans Baldwin is pretty sure you know somebody who is taking performance-enhancing drugs. This is based on his discovery that so many people in his own circle—average folks, not gym rats—are taking something of that nature. It might be human growth hormone, or testosterone, or...

Investigation: US Military Ran Major Anti-Vax Campaign

Reuters reports the Pentagon orchestrated one in the Philippines during COVID to discredit China

(Newser) - At one point during the COVID pandemic, then-Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte was so exasperated about how few citizens were getting vaccinations that he made an unusual threat. "You choose, vaccine or I will have you jailed," he told the nation in a televised address in June 2021. What...

There's a Big Downside to Demonizing Opioids
We May Have Gone Too Far
in Demonizing Opioids
longform
Jun 9, 2024 3:20 PM CDT

We May Have Gone Too Far in Demonizing Opioids

Too many people are dying painful deaths, writes Ann Neumann in the Baffler

(Newser) - The stigma in America against opioid use is an understandable one, writes Ann Neumann in the Baffler . After all, the devastating toll of addiction over the last two decades by drugs such as OxyContin has been well chronicled. Neumann covers that familiar territory in her piece, but in the context...

Disney's China Experiment Hasn't Gone as Expected
Disney's China Experiment
Hasn't Gone as Expected
longform
Jun 9, 2024 12:25 PM CDT

Disney's China Experiment Hasn't Gone as Expected

For one thing, the little-known LinaBell is the most popular character, as the Dial explains

(Newser) - When Disney opened Shangahi Disneyland in 2016, it had visions of becoming a cultural juggernaut in China on par with its success in the US. Things haven't gone exactly as planned. "Disneyland is popular in China, but not in the way that Disney intended," writes Lavender Au...

A Black Market Has Emerged for DIY Poop Transplants

Slate looks at the risky treatment under FDA scrutiny

(Newser) - Fecal microbiota transplants involve transferring healthy bacteria from a donor's gut microbiome to another person's colon—a poop transplant—and are as experimental as it gets. The FDA has greenlit just one type of FMT treatment in recent years, to treat a bacterial infection known as C. diff....

'Starbucks of Bowling' Upends Sport's Old-School Culture

The Lever takes an in-depth, and unflattering, look at the fast-growing Bowlero chain

(Newser) - The Lever estimates that 70 million Americans bowled at least once last year, making the humble pastime the largest participation sport in the nation. And it's a safe bet that many of those people did so in an alley owned by the fast-growing Bowlero chain. Though it sprang up...

WSJ Story About Biden 'Slipping' Is Hot Topic in DC

Newspaper offers critical assessment as Democrats complain about bias

(Newser) - One of the stories causing the biggest kerfuffle in DC this week is a 3,000-word piece in the Wall Street Journal whose headline provides the gist: "Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping." It's based on interviews with more than 45 people over a span...

Cheer Mom Accused of Deepfakes Tells Her Side
Cheer Mom in 'Deepfake'
Scandal Tells Her Side
longform
Jun 2, 2024 4:10 PM CDT

Cheer Mom in 'Deepfake' Scandal Tells Her Side

Raffaella Spone never actually faked anything, though that part of the story wasn't widely told

(Newser) - The story was so sensational, it inspired a Lifetime television movie called Deadly Cheer Mom—but what was the truth behind the sordid tabloid tales? Raffaella Spone has come forward for the first time to tell her side of the story to the Guardian , and she insists almost none of...

Big Dairy Is Thrilled With Your Butter Board
Big Dairy Is Thrilled
With Your Butter Board
longform
Jun 2, 2024 1:50 PM CDT

Big Dairy Is Thrilled With Your Butter Board

Grist looks at how the industry's PR machine is on a roll, displeasing some critics

(Newser) - Not too long ago, "butter board" recipes and how-tos were all the rage on social media. Not surprisingly, the dairy industry was pretty happy about this sudden love of butter. What may be a bit more surprising is that the industry itself played a big role in helping butter...

A Texas Dad Still Wants to Know: Who Killed His Boy?

Marshall Stewart has been searching for his son's killers since 1988

(Newser) - "For thirty-five f—ing years, my brain's been turning over all these questions," says Sean Stewart. Questions like why the bodies of his 16-year-old brother, Shane, and Sally McNelly, 18, were left in the brush along a rough dirt path leading to a reservoir outside San Angelo...

What the Mom of This Mass Shooter Can Teach Us
What the Mom of
This Mass Shooter
Can Teach Us
longform
Jun 1, 2024 5:45 PM CDT

What the Mom of This Mass Shooter Can Teach Us

There's a lot that threat assessment teams can learn from 2014 Isla Vista massacre

(Newser) - On May 23, 2014, Elliot Rodger fatally stabbed his two roommates and one of their friends in their Santa Barbara-area apartment, then went on a driving and shooting rampage through nearby Isla Vista, California, killing three more people and injuring 14 others before taking his own life. In the aftermath...

India Silences Its Critics— on US Soil
We May Be
Overlooking
a Dangerous
Slide in India
longform
May 26, 2024 12:43 PM CDT

We May Be Overlooking a Dangerous Slide in India

Vox reports on how government silences critics in America through intimidation

(Newser) - When reporter Zack Beauchamp was speaking to an expert on India who lived in the US, the person mentioned they were afraid of being too critical for fear the government would go after relatives back in India. It sounded like a tactic you might hear in regard to China or...

3M Scientist Regrets Role in Study of Forever Chemicals

ProPublica reports on the company's long-standing knowledge about dangers of PFOS

(Newser) - Back in the 1990s, a 3M chemist named Kris Hansen discovered a surprising and troubling thing: Toxic "forever chemicals" were showing up in every blood sample she tested—from ordinary people all over the country. As ProPublica reports, Hansen shared the findings with superiors, only to run into friction....

Stories 1 - 20 |  Next >>