The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

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1. Trump’s Inconvenient Racial Truth

Nikole Hannah-Jones | The New York Times | Nov. 1, 2016 | 10 minutes (2,594 words)

“Regardless of how you feel about Trump, on this one thing he is right: The Democratic Party has taken black Americans for granted.”

2. Sex, Drugs, and Bestsellers: The Legend of the Literary Brat Pack

Jason Diamond | Harper’s Bazaar | Nov. 2, 2016 | 18 minutes (4,542 words)

A look back at the “literary brat pack”—Jay McInerney, Bret Easton Ellis, Tama Janowitz and a group of other writers in the 1980s as famous for their coke-fueled late nights at the Odeon as they were for publishing celebrated novels before the age of 30.

3. Madam Prescient: Raising the Spirit of American Radicalism

Jessa Crispin | The Baffler | Aug. 15, 2016 | 12 minutes (3,108 words)

Victoria Woodhull, a former prostitute, free-love advocate, and clairvoyant (and proponent of abolition, marriage reform, and education rights) ran for President of the US – in 1872.

4. The Lost Children of Soul Asylum’s ‘Runaway Train’ Video

Elon Green | Mel Magazine | Nov. 4, 2016 | 13 minutes (3,373 words)

Elon Green looks back at the making of Soul Asylum’s 1993 hit video for “Runaway Train,” and the missing children who were featured.

5. California Dreaming

Marian Bull | Eater | Nov. 4, 2016 | 25 minutes (6,277 words)

A profile of restaurant chef Jessica Koslow, who owns Sqirl, a hip L.A. restaurant that serves “grain bowls and hashes and salads” that “scream with acid and spice and herbs and the funk of fermentation.” Bull looks at the fetishization of “California food” and the lure of living in Southern California.

from Longreads https://blog.longreads.com/2016/11/04/the-top-5-longreads-of-the-week-143/