The Lead
Saturday Edition · Volume XII
The slow architecture of a city that refused to forget
For a decade, a quiet coalition of residents, archivists and one stubborn librarian fought to keep a neighbourhood’s memory intact. This is how they won.
Words by Mara Whitfield · 14 min read
What we talk about when we talk about taste
A critic makes the case that taste is a skill, not a verdict — and that anyone can learn it.
The economists who learned to listen
A new generation is rebuilding its field around the messy reality of human decisions.
Three débuts that announce a decade
This season’s first novels share a restless, generous ambition worth your attention.
Featured
This week’s reading
Long read
After the flood: rebuilding a coastline, and an idea of home
A reported essay on the towns choosing to stay, and what their stubbornness teaches the rest of us.
Ideas
The case for boredom in an age of infinite feeds
Attention is the one resource we can’t manufacture more of. A philosopher argues that learning to be bored again may be the most radical thing we can do.
Words by Idris Bello · 9 min read
What a 1970s commune got right about work
Their experiment failed. Their questions did not.
The library as the last public living room
On the quiet civic genius of a place that asks nothing of you.
Why we keep rereading the books that shaped us
A return visit is never to the same book — or the same reader.
A magazine is a conversation a community has with itself. Our job is to keep it honest, keep it curious, and keep it going.
Eleanor Voss, Editor-in-Chief
Editors’ picks
Most read this month
01
Investigation
The slow architecture of a city that refused to forget
Mara Whitfield
02
Ideas
The case for boredom in an age of infinite feeds
Idris Bello
03
Science
The quiet revolution in how we measure time
Lena Osei
04
Reviews
Three débuts that announce a decade
Tom Reyes
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