Feature

A Midsummer Nightmare

How the Washington Midsummer Renaissance Faire turned into a nightmare for its volunteer performers.

06/03/2025 By Nathalie Graham Photography by Jovelle Tamayo

Year in Review

Seattle Met’s Most-Read Longform Stories of 2024

These are the features our readers loved this year.

12/27/2024 By Seattle Met Staff

Feature

Renee Erickson's Accidental Empire

The unusual dynamic between the chef and her partners has given Seattle some of its most essential restaurants—and a lot of surprises along the way.

07/08/2024 By Allecia Vermillion Illustrations by Jonny Ruzzo

Feature

Who Is the City For?

Elijah L. Lewis spent his life trying to build a better Seattle. Then a stranger shot him and his nephew in broad daylight.

01/30/2024 By Eric Nusbaum Illustrations by Richard A. Chance Photography by Meron Menghistab

Year in Review

Seattle Met's 5 Most-Read Longform Stories of 2023

These are the features our readers loved this year.

12/26/2023 By Seattle Met Staff

Feature

Up and Down Aurora Avenue

The highs, lows, and possibilities of Seattle’s thorniest thoroughfare.

05/31/2023 By Allecia Vermillion Photography by Chona Kasinger

Year in Review

Seattle Met's 5 Most-Read Longform Stories of 2022

The longreads that attracted the most eyeballs this year.

12/27/2022 By Seattle Met Staff

Good Stories

The 10 Best Long Stories about Seattle

We gathered our most recent and favorite longform articles from Seattle Met's award-winning writers.

11/24/2021 By Seattle Met Staff

FEATURE

The Octopus from Outer Space

Seattle’s most beguiling sea creatures were once feared and hunted—and even wrestled—for sport. But new research and a few surprising encounters are changing how we view them. A story in eight parts.

12/02/2019 By James Ross Gardner

Feature

A Life Extruded: Mike Easton and the Alki Homestead’s Path to Il Nido

When the chef reshaped his career he couldn't have known he'd share his destiny with a century-old log cabin and dining icon rising from literal ashes.

10/22/2019 By Allecia Vermillion Photography by Kyle Johnson

Feature

Who Will Mourn the Tech Bro?

The subculture you love to hate is tough to define. It will be even tougher when it’s gone.

09/24/2019 By James Ross Gardner Illustrations by Ryan Snook

Feature

In the Straits: An Inmate Turned Millionaire Turned Lone Survivor

He was a convicted felon who found a niche in Seattle’s construction boom. As the region’s fortunes rose and fell—and rose again—so did his. Then a fatal boating accident came for Michael Powers’s fairy-tale ending.

08/19/2019 By James Ross Gardner

Feature

Checking Out: Amazon, Microsoft, and the Future of Automated Grocery

Some of the region’s biggest tech players are racing to rewrite how America shops—again.

07/23/2019 By Stefan Milne Illustrations by Koren Shadmi

Feature

A Song of Shadow and Light

The Tacoma Refugee Choir formed to reach out to the most vulnerable. Its founder didn't anticipate its impact on her—or her city.

05/28/2019 By James Ross Gardner Photography by Lindsey Wasson

Feature

Where on Earth Is Sam Sayers?

On a perfect summer day, a solo hiker went missing from a Cascade trail. A search ensued unlike anything the state of Washington has ever seen. Nine months later, the mystery has consumed the lives of thousands. Where did she go?

04/23/2019 By Allison Williams

Feature

Dealer Takes All: Inside One of Seattle's Biggest Opioid Busts

It took a multistate sting to bring down the opioid king of Capitol Hill. But not before his product stole a life. The story of two men, their elusive dreams, and one deadly drug.

03/26/2019 By Levi Pulkkinen

Year in Review

Seattle Met's 6 Most-Read Stories of 2018

From an unclaimed Seattle rock star to a world-changing card game to a decades-old murder, these were our most poplar long-form articles of the year.

12/19/2018 By Seattle Met Staff

Born This Way

Conversion Therapy Survivors Still Have Wounds to Heal

Licensed therapists can no longer practice conversion therapy on minors. But new legislation can't erase the anguish of those who lived through the experience.

06/19/2018 By Hayat Norimine

Feature

The Boat at the Bottom of the Sea

More than a year after a Seattle-based crabber vanished in Alaska's Bering Sea, its final hours remain a mystery. The surviving family of the Destination’s crew—and one intrepid investigator—seek to uncover the secrets the ocean still keeps.

04/09/2018 By Eva Holland

Feature

Ricardo Rios Is an American Dreamer

In 1991, his parents carried him across the U.S. border at four months old. Now, as he awaits a permanent solution, Ricardo Rios fears expulsion from the only country he’s ever known.

02/15/2018 By Hayat Norimine