Inverse Longreads

Retrospective
35 years ago, Hideo Kojima changed action games forever

“Kept you waiting, huh?”

Collage Remix/Max Fleishman
Inverse Longreads

Looking for something a little more involved? Inverse’s Longreads include oral histories, investigations, definitive guides, narratives, essays, interviews, lists, and more.

If you have a long-form story pitch, contact our editors.

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc./Getty Images
Innovation
60 years ago, a military pilot made it to space — and set off a debate that rages today

Where does space begin?

PhotoQuest/Archive Photos/Getty Images
The Inverse Interview
Strange New Worlds showrunners talk Season 2 cameos, timeline, and more

Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers talk about Captain Kirk, that season finale time jump, and just how far the show can go into Trek canon.

Paramount+
The Viking Issue
Remembering Hnefatafl, the 1,000-year-old Viking board game murdered by chess

“It was the most prominent board game in Northern Europe for hundreds of years, so however it was played, it was engaging.”

Hello there
At Star Wars Celebration, the prequels have become the main event

“They’re very underrated and incredibly creative,” Troy Alders, art director for Lucasfilm, tells Inverse.

Getty/Max Fleishman for Inverse
HORIZONS
Ketamine can treat depression — but teletherapy could make it accessible

Opinion: Psychedelic therapy via video calls could expand accessibility to emerging treatments for depression.

by Nick Hilden
Marco_Piunti/E+/Getty Images
Feature
The oral history of Idiocracy, Mike Judge's time-travel triumph

“At a certain point, it went from a good vibe to thinking that this movie was cursed from the beginning.”

The Future is here
How a young upstart (George Lucas) and his crew united to innovate Hollywood

Inverse spoke to the people behind 1971's sci-fi cult classic THX 1138 to get the untold story of George Lucas's first science fiction movie.

Vikings
The team was scared that we would fail: A NASA mission 45 years ago changed everything

“The team was scared.”

Rebel Alliance
How an Army of Twitter Stans Changed Star Wars Forever

“Gina Carano boop/bop/beep.”

Feature
Spielberg’s raptor

How Jurassic Park led to (and then ruined) the director’s chance to have a dinosaur named after him.

Murray Close/Moviepix/Getty Images
Part One
How Marvel's Shang-Chi had to "destroy" its own racist origins

The first in a series about Shang-Chi’s origins, rise, fall, and rebirth.

Isip Xin
Feature
Meet the young people who may never smell again because of Covid-19

“It tasted like nothing.”

Innovation
Tesla Solar Roof reviews: 9 things you don't realize until you own one for a year

Super fans think you're amazing. Others will think you don't actually exist.

Amanda Tobler
It's time for men to start talking about male infertility. I'll go first.

The more I thought about my experience, the more I reflected on how there’s no lexicon to discuss the emotional fallout of male infertility.

The Inverse Interview
The French father of Hollywood sci-fi is still planning his masterpiece

“Maybe my work is too bizarre”

How the Adult Swim pirate ship set sail

Twenty years ago, it changed animation forever. Here's the unlikely true story.

NTA or YTA?
Am I the Asshole?

Why Reddit's favorite question is more popular than ever

Glenn Harvey/Inverse
Future Earth 2121
The future of Earth is 5 other planets

And one bonus prize.

Getty Images
scams
Dank Vapes Is the "Biggest Conspiracy" in Pot That Can Put You in a Coma

A thriving shadow economy is run on unsuspecting buyers and predatory sellers.

Inverse
Deep Dive
30 facts you didn’t know about Terminator 2

#21: The first scene of Terminator 2, in which the nuclear apocalypse is depicted, cost more than the entire first film.

Bad internet
"Mars, fascinating:" Why a garbage video went viral before NASA could release the real one

A rotten ecosystem of science social media accounts is pushing hoax content to gin up audience numbers and sell low-rent affiliate ads. The Mars rover is the latest victim.

Zelda 35 Week
Phil Spencer and 17 more video game luminaries on Zelda's legendary impact
Longform
In wildfire country, PTSD is dominating burned-out communities

“There’s something pretty twisted and poetic about trying to use calming breaths for fire anxiety when the air quality is bad.”

Deep Dive
15 facts you didn’t know about Drive, the best noir thriller of the century

Drive only happened thanks to a bizarre confluence of events that included Harrison Ford, flu medicine, and REO Speedwagon.

One Dead. 41 To Go.
“It felt like school.” The stars of Battle Royale reflect, 20 years later

Two contestants look back at the toils and triumphs of the controversial cult classic.

Feature
In Shakespeare, veterans find a “tower of strength”

“Shakespeare’s meter of iambic pentameter mimics the human heartbeat.”

Glenn Harvey
Dream Teams
How a risky idea led to the most ambitious map of humankind ever created

“It was exhilarating, because you felt you were a part of something really, really important.”

National Institutes of Health
One Year Later
The evolutionary reason all your friends made babies during the pandemic

The pandemic really made me choose what I want, instead of what fits with what people expect.”

Part Three
How Asian American internet trailblazers gave new life to Shang-Chi

The final story in a series on Shang-Chi’s origins, rise, fall, and rebirth.

John Lee
The Inverse Interview
Henry Golding channels his main character energy

“I’m always the outsider,” the Snake Eyes star says.

Kaleb Marshall
believe it
Mushrooms on Mars: A “modern Galileo” fights to prove alien life exists

“Our team is advancing science, but those who oppose us are anti-science.”

What if?
What if the MCU never existed?

Would Hollywood be a better place without Marvel?

Joel Ryan - PA Images/PA Images/Getty Images

crisserbug/iStock Unreleased/Getty Images

Exclusive
Substack's comic book problems are just getting started

“I don’t even know what a Substack is.”

“Aharon said it was healing.”

Psychedelic-assisted therapy is bigger than ever, but it’s at risk of being compromised by alleged abuse.

Will Hall/Inverse
Future of Medicine
Peace blockade

Psilocybin liberates the mind from constant thoughts of death that often consume the terminally ill. But its usage is being blocked, despite the Right to Try Law.

by Matigan King and Claire Cameron
Federico Pazos
longform
Inside a Covid-19 support group, where a long-haul future is faced head-on

“We are sick, we are here, and we need help.”

The oral history of The Infinity Gauntlet, Marvel's game-changing comic event

30 years ago, Marvel redefined comics and superheroes forever. Here’s how.

Exclusive
How Fast Five invented the cinematic universe before Marvel — and saved the Rock's career

“We did The Avengers a year before The Avengers came out.”

Jess Suttner
Cowabunga?
How Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles devastated the world’s turtle population

During the height of “Turtle Mania,” red-eared sliders were shipped all over the world as pets, but a lot of them didn’t stay in their tanks.

Feature
Can masks spread conspiracies? Inside the world of QAnon merch

The merch is the message.

Dewey Saunders for Inverse
Red Dead Week
Red Dead Redemption's honor system sends you to hell and back for a cool hat

The constant threat of consequences makes its violent sandbox uniquely memorable.

Ogres are like onions
The oral history of Shrek, the “ugly stepsister” that changed animation

Inverse speaks with the director, writers, and voices behind the 2001 DreamWorks masterpiece.

Paige Mehrer
Staycation
Science has fixed the worst part of psychedelic drugs

If you’re looking to kick depression, psychedelic drugs could help, but not everyone wants to trip. A new study in mice could help.

Shutterstock
The Inverse Interview
Amazon Luna chief reveals the 1 factor that will improve the future of video games

"I’m really excited about the future."

Entertainment
An Oral History of Too Many Cooks, Adult Swim's weirdest experiment ever

"I had this idea but didn’t know if I could keep it going for 11 minutes..."

Codex
China's incredibly ambitious Tiangong space station: The complete guide

The Tiangong station represents the third phase of China’s crewed space program

Long read
Beast Wars redefined Transformers. 25 years later, it might happen again.

Inverse catches up with the writers and actors behind the beloved CGI Transformers cartoon ahead of its 2022 big-screen debut.

ACAB/MAGA
The left-wing gamers who love Call of Duty

For many players, a cultural reckoning about police violence hasn't dimmed the shine of the venerable shooter.

Images of police: Getty. Image of Call of Duty character: Activision
Video Games Issue 2021
The oral history of Banjo-Kazooie, the N64’s unlikeliest hit

The dream factory: Banjo-Kazooie creators relive Rare's golden age.

Page Mehrer
Video Games Issue 2021
The oral history of Banjo-Kazooie, the N64’s unlikeliest hit

The dream factory: Banjo-Kazooie creators relive Rare's golden age.

Page Mehrer
One Year Later
Soy boys: How tofu conquered America during a global pandemic
Nguyen Tran
The Inverse Interview
“It’s a terrible time to be a hater.”

It's Mark Millar's world. We're just living in it.

Getty
Gaming
Blockchain games twist the fundamentals of online gaming

It’s complicated.

Nguyen Tran
Wait, what?
“Mushrooms on Mars.” How close was a controversial scientist to academic legitimacy?

“This is a question NASA does not want asked.”

Culture
Everybody calling the Cybertruck "brutalist" is wrong.

The Cybertruck is bold, but one of America's leading brutalism experts says that's not enough to earn the term.

Tesla
Mask on
Inside the global social media movement that claims it changed the CDC's mind on masks

A viral image and a series of intertwining online groups are winning over policymakers.