The Big Story

Some of Our Favorite Longreads of 2020

It was a brutal year. Take a breath and enjoy some of our best in-depth stories.
A collage of articles and people reading.
Illustration: Tracy J Lee; WIRED Staff; Getty Images

We weren’t just bingeing Netflix in this pandemic-blighted year. We were reading—voraciously. Yes, in 2020 WIRED readers flocked to long-form stories about the coronavirus disaster. But they also devoured in-depth articles about everything from alleged poker cheats to digital blackface to the finer points of eluding a hungry dinosaur.

So, on the off-chance that you missed any of these gems, we’re here to suggest a holiday reading list of our favorites from the past year. It’s an admittedly subjective compilation, fueled by the picks of WIRED editors, reader favorites, and, yes, a few of my own darlings.

Enjoy some reading. Then you can go back to Netflix.

Year in Review: What WIRED learned from tech, science, culture, and more in 2020

  • diptych man walking in a yard and the words What Happened to Lee
    Artwork by Amy Friend; Photograph by Jack Bool

    The Devastating Decline of a Brilliant Young Coder

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  • Photographs: Ian Allen

    The True Story of the Antifa Invasion of Forks, Washington

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  • Photograph: Cody Cobb

    The Greatest Climate-Protecting Technology Ever Devised

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  • Photograph: Jessica Pettway

    TikTok and the Evolution of Digital Blackface

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  • Illustration: SAM WHITNEY

    The Strange and Twisted Tale of Hydroxychloroquine

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  • Photograph: Bethany Mollenkof

    There’s No Such Thing as Family Secrets in the Age of 23andMe

    DNA tests are cheap and ubiquitous. For some donor-conceived people, they can unearth long-buried truths about their ancestry—and lead to unorthodox reunions.

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  • Photographs by Stephanie Gonot; Food styling by Maya Bookbinder; Prop styling by Amy Taylor

    Algae Caviar, Anyone? What We'll Eat on the Journey to Mars

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  • Photograph: KEIRNAN MONAGHAN & THEO VAMVOUNAKIS

    The Cheating Scandal That Ripped the Poker World Apart

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  • Photograph: Ramona Rosales

    The Confessions of Marcus Hutchins, the Hacker Who Saved the Internet

    At 22, Marcus Hutchins put a stop to the worst cyberattack the world had ever seen. Then he was arrested by the FBI. This is his untold story.

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  • PHOTOGRAPH: IKE EDEANI

    To Run My Best Marathon at Age 44, I Had to Outrun My Past

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  • Photograph: Jessica Pettway

    In a World Gone Mad, Paper Planners Offer Order and Delight

    On Instagram and Facebook, members of a wonderfully obsessive community organize every aspect of their lives—through pandemics and protests—with binders and stickers.

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  • Illustration: Elena Lacey

    Amazon Wants to ‘Win at Games.’ So Why Hasn’t It?

    The company that brute-forced its way into so many industries may now have met its match.

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  • Photographs by Terry Schmitt/San Francisco Chronicle/Polaris; Jessica Christian/San Franicsco Chronicle/Getty Images

    San Francisco Was Uniquely Prepared for Covid-19 

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  • Photograph: Supranav Dash

    The Rise of a Hindu Vigilante in the Age of WhatsApp and Modi

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  • Photograph: Kevin Serna

    My Friend Was Struck by ALS. To Fight Back, He Built a Movement

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  • Illustration: Michael Kennedy

    ClickHole Started as a Meat Joke. Can It Avoid Being Offal?

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  • Illustration: Mark Weaver/Getty Images

    Going the Distance (and Beyond) to Catch Marathon Cheaters

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  • Illustration: JOHANNA GOODMAN

    The Gospel of Wealth According to Marc Benioff

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  • Photograph: James Devaney/Getty Images

    The Real Reason Veterinarians Gave a Tiger a Covid-19 Test

    It’s hard for humans in New York City to get a test for the coronavirus. So when a Bronx Zoo tiger tested positive for Covid-19, it invited some questions.

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  • Illustration: Sam Whitney; Getty Images; Photograph by Matt Mason

    A Nameless Hiker and the Case the Internet Can’t Crack

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  • Photograph: David Ryder/Reuters

    First Denial, Then Fear: Covid-19 Patients in Their Own Words

    People infected with the coronavirus try to cope as the crisis accelerates. The professionals taking care of them are quickly becoming overwhelmed.

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  • Photograph: Jose Azel/Getty Images

    The Media Monsters in the National Dialog

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  • Courtesy of Colonial Williamsburg

    The Quest to Unearth One of America’s Oldest Black Churches

    First Baptist Church was founded in secret in 1776. It’s been hidden under a parking lot in Colonial Williamsburg for decades—a metaphor for the failures of archaeology and American history.

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  • Illustration: Elena Lacey

    How to Outrun a Dinosaur

    If, through some scientific malfunction, you found yourself transported 70 million years into the past, you might be safer from certain hungry reptiles than you think.

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  • Illustration: Elena Lacey; Getty Images

    Inside the Early Days of China’s Coronavirus Cover-Up

    The dawn of a pandemic—as seen through the news and social media posts that vanished from China’s internet.

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  • Illustrations by George McCalman

    What Writing a Pandemic Newsletter Showed Me About America

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  • Photograph: Phuc Pham

    The Unsinkable Maddie Stone, Google’s Bug-Hunting Badass

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  • Illustration: Sam Whitney

    How Work Became an Inescapable Hellhole

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  • Photograph: Rozette Rago

    Gravity, Gizmos, and a Grand Theory of Interstellar Travel

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  • Illustration: Sam Whitney; Getty Images

    Death, Love, and the Solace of a Million Motorcycle Parts

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  • Photograph: Paloma Rincón

    How Much Is a Human Life Actually Worth?

    As the US economy reopens  amid a deadly pandemic, a dire question looms. Let's weigh the risks—and do the math.

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  • Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

    The Tragic Physics of the Deadly Explosion in Beirut 

    A blast injury specialist explores the chemistry—and history—of explosions like the one captured in videos that swept across the world.

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  • Photograph: Emily Keegin/Getty Images

    Tech Is a Double-Edged Lifeline for Domestic Violence Victims

    As Covid-19 forces some to shelter place with their abusers, dedicated hotlines, apps, and text messages can provide support. But using them is also risk.

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  • Illustrations by Eduardo Ramón

    The Secret History of a Cold War Mastermind

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  • Photograph: HOLLY ANDRES

    One Woman’s High-Touch Bid to Upend the Sex-Toy Industry

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Mark Robinson focuses on longform narratives and investigative features online and in print. In 2016 and 2017 he was the editor in chief of EPIC magazine, a journalism and film and TV production startup that specializes in publishing longform nonfiction. Before that he spent more than a decade at WIRED, ... Read more
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