Featured

8 min read

The poet laureate of Amazon Art & Science Close Reads

He was one of Amazon’s most prolific product reviewers. But when Kevin Killian died in 2019, he left behind something closer to literature than shopping advice.

James Shackell

7 read

Why country songs are the tabloid journalism of music (and tabloid journalism is the country music of news) Close Reads Art & Science

Andrew Mueller

11 min read

Capitalism failed the media. Can a little collectivism save it? Close Reads

James Shackell

So you’ve been fired. Here’s how not to post about it on LinkedIn. Close Reads How To

Patrick Marlborough

The daily writing routines of Joan Didion, Susan Sontag, Haruki Murakami and other famous writers How To Art & Science

Chris Harrigan

17 things I learned about life by mainlining Maria Popova’s website Close Reads

Kirsten Drysdale

Kurt Vonnegut graphed the world’s most popular stories. Do his diagrams tell us something important about humanity? Art & Science Close Reads

Patrick Pittman

12 steps for making “iconic” TV shows, according to noted storytelling genius Jeff Bezos How To Art & Science Close Reads

Chris Harrigan

The Podcast

Listen to StoryCraft, our sister podcast about the art and science of storytelling.

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Season 2 – Episode 1: Andrew Mueller

How Andrew Mueller pulled off one of the most interesting careers in journalism

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Latest

6 min read

They wanted to let AI write a novel. The backlash was fierce—and illuminating. Art & Science Close Reads

The group behind National Novel Writing Month, which challenges writers to pen 50,000 words each November, called opposing AI “classist and ableist”. Authors revolted—sparking debate about the very nature of creativity.

Miles Klee

Close Reads How To

The result is the world’s saddest puppet show performed at a philosophical gunpoint, the bastardisation of our true selves to better lubricate our passage down the gastrointestinal tract of late capitalism.

So you’ve been fired. Here’s how not to post about it on LinkedIn.

Art & Science How To

In the age of big data, many of the world’s secrets are hiding in plain sight. You just need to know where to look.

How to bring down a government using numbers

Profiles Close Reads

Most people who write about climate don’t think about it as a story. They think about it as information.

Jeff Goodell wrote the best true crime book of 2023. Unfortunately, we’re the victims.

How To Art & Science Close Reads

Jeff Bezos’s storytelling rules aren’t bad because storytelling is a sacred art form. They’re bad because following them would result in some truly bizarre television.

12 steps for making “iconic” TV shows, according to noted storytelling genius Jeff Bezos

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The Story Newsletter

We're making a print magazine! And we're inviting you backstage for the entire glorious and potentially chaotic journey. Subscribe below for sneak peeks, updates about the issue and dispatches from the frontlines of the mag-making process.