News & Politics

3 Captivating Longreads for a Corona-Free Weekend

An account of a walk around the Beltway, an epic con, and a sit-down with a fascinating author of kids' literature.

Photograph by Jeff Elkins

Looking for stories to take your mind off constant corona coverage? We’ve got a few ideas!

Jason Reynolds Is the Bard of Black YA Fiction. Now He’s Written a Totally Different Kind of Book.

The DC author sold millions of novels featuring characters long missing from children’s lit. Writing a history of racism for kids is something else.

The Strange, Spectacular Con of Bobby Charles Thompson

Photographs courtesy of Ohio Attorney General, Ohio Investigators, AP Images, and Reprinted with Permission of Tampa Bay Times.

Donors all over America opened their wallets for his United States Navy Veterans Association. Politicians all over Washington posed for grip-and-grins with him. But not only was he not a legitimate fundraiser for military families—he wasn’t even Bobby Charles Thompson. A look inside the hunt to catch one of the country’s biggest con men.

I Walked 64 Miles Around the Beltway. What the Hell Was I Thinking?

Photograph by Evy Mages

The highway ringing Washington is 64 miles long. No one ever confused it with a scenic nature trail. But on a six-day hike along its periphery, a born-and-bred Washingtonian found moments of surprising beauty, tolerated excruciating blisters, and learned quite a lot about his hometown.