Longform
Youth Sports in Philadelphia Are Uneven — and the Gaps Are Growing
It is a warm September evening at the sparkling new $21 million Vare Recreation Center at 26th and Moore streets, home to the Sigma Sharks […]
How to Thrive — Not Just Survive — Through Menopause
When Rittenhouse resident Julie Parana had a hysterectomy at 42, she was told that, because her ovaries were left intact, her hormones would be fine […]
How Pilates Became the Trendiest — and Most Hotly Debated — Workout
In the summer of 2024, Abington resident Katie Agnew was navigating motherhood — and the physical, mental, and hormonal changes that come with it — […]
Trump’s Cuts Are Hitting Philly Hard. Can the City Hold On?
I. The letter informing Penn researcher Aaron Richterman that his multiyear, multimillion-dollar NIH grant was being terminated came at the very end of May, 131 […]
Meet the Philly-Born Director Changing the Predator Universe
Dan Trachtenberg believed he’d made his very own Star Wars. It was 1984, and the three-year-old auteur had recruited his mother to hold the family […]
How Questlove Became the Defining Drummer of His Generation
The following is an excerpt from the book Backbeats: A History of Rock and Roll in Fifteen Drummers, released on November 11th. The 41st Grammy […]
Phila and Rachel Lorn’s Trick to Success? Desperation
I. This one time, not too long ago (but also kinda forever ago), Phila Lorn was in Idaho. In Sun Valley, Idaho, which is not […]
How One Store Became Ground Zero for West Philly’s Gentrification War
The song of the summer on Baltimore Avenue this year was a lament, a Greek chorus that started as a whisper and just kept getting […]
Politics, AI, and Stress: Why Teaching in Philly Has Never Been Harder
There was a moment in 2020, in the midst of COVID — that dark year when so many schools were closed and so many parents […]
A Century Later, the Parkway’s Grand Vision May Finally Come True
One day, nearly a decade ago, Mike Carroll sat down for a quotidian meeting of city officials at the Philadelphia Streets Department. Next to him […]
Can Mussels Save Philadelphia’s Waterways?
“Feeding time,” says Shannon Boyle, pushing back her chair and pulling her attention away from the microscope she’s been bent over for the better part […]
The High Cost of Underfunding Philly’s Parks
It’s high noon on a 98-degree day in early summer, but Justin DiBerardinis doesn’t seem to know it. Wearing dark blue jeans and layered T-shirts […]
50 Years of Fresh Air: An Oral History
In college she wanted to be a writer, but the words refused to sparkle like her heroes’. Teaching was a disaster. The middle-school kids mocked […]
Inside the Mind of Nick Sirianni
On a steamy afternoon in late May, I’m sitting inside the Wells Fargo Center, listening to the Super Bowl–winning coach of the Eagles talk about […]
Inside Pennsbury High’s Legendary Prom: The Most Epic School Dance in America
There’s a boat in the lobby of the high school. It’s not a real boat, of course; it’s a 16-foot replica made of Styrofoam. The […]