Longreads

The Last Days of the Leather Fortress

For a decade, the BDSM site Kink.com has filmed scenes for its more than 50,000 members in a hundred-year-old armory in downtown San Francisco. This year, the final erotic frames were shot on the premises.

Selling China by the Sleeve Dance

Beneath the ubiquitous posters for the Shen Yun ballet is a battle between dissidents and the state over the soul of a nation, both at home and across the diaspora.

Green To Me

Like anything I love, I mistrust the color green down to the fingernail-edges of all the feelings it engenders in me.

On Falling in Love with David

Is it possible to decolonize and police a thing as subconscious and primal as desire?

The Legion Lonely

Over the past few decades, loneliness has reached almost epidemic levels, with men uniquely suffering its effects. How and why has isolation become such a threat?

What I Learned at Personal Branding School

What does it take to evolve from human being to human brand? If you're enrolled in the right free online introductory-level course, about five weeks.

Anger is an Ally

After I was run over by a car, getting mad helped me find my way back to myself.

The Eternal Becoming of Sofia Coppola

Like so many of her heroines, the director seduces to control.

Anxiety at the Gates

Why did I go to work for the TSA? To try to connect with my father? To soothe various concerns as a new father myself? Was I researching a book? Having a midlife crisis? All of the above?

Mourning My Dad, the Identical Twin

The fact that I’ve always had an exact replica of my father, with a startlingly similar voice, mannerisms and, well, face, never really struck me as exceptional until he passed away.