We ranked the most popular articles published by Slate in October. Then we asked a few Slate editors to nominate the best stories you missed. Their answers are at the bottom. —Slate Plus editors
The 20 Most Read Articles of October
1. Perhaps You Didn’t Hear Me, Dad. I Really Want It.
By Sean Williams, Oct. 7
2. Snake Island Is So Dangerous That the Brazilian Navy Has Forbidden Anyone From Landing There
By Dylan Thuras, Oct. 20
3. Remember the Guy Who Gave His Employees a $70,000 Minimum Wage? Here’s What Happened Next.
By Paul Keegan, Oct. 23 (Originaly published in Inc.)
4. After a 1996 Mass Shooting, Australia Enacted Strict Gun Laws. It Hasn’t Had a Similar Massacre Since.
By Will Oremus, Oct. 1 (Originally published in December 2012)
5. A Naked Justin Bieber Flaunts His Stripped Bod and Is Nakedly Loving It, With His Penis Out
By Heather Schwedel, Oct. 8
6. If You Have the Flu, Please Do Not Listen to Gwyneth Paltrow
By Alexandra Sowa, Oct. 19
7. Brave Portland Woman Breaks Up Planned Parenthood Protest by Chanting “Yeast Infections!”
By Christina Cauterucci, Oct. 26
8. Sure, This Star Is Weird. But Aliens?
By Phil Plait, Oct. 14
9. Amazon Basically Just Confirmed Everyone’s Worst Nightmare About Amazon
By Alison Griswold, Oct. 1
10. Why Do So Many Americans Think They Have Cherokee Blood?
By Gregory D. Smithers, Oct. 1
11. Sorry, Star Wars Fans, Luke Probably Isn’t Evil in The Force Awakens. Here’s How We Know.
By Forrest Wickman, Oct. 26
12. Jeb Bush Just Sunk to His Lowest Point Ever. And It’s All Because of Trump.
By Jim Newell, Oct. 2
13. Why Was Hermione Granger Cast as White in the Harry Potter Films?
By Quora Contributor, Oct. 9
14. Taylor Swift Backpedals on “Bad Blood” as Her Throne of Lies Crumbles Beneath Her
By Christina Cauterucci, Oct. 19
15. Patricia, Strongest Hurricane in History, Nears Mexico Landfall
By Eric Holthaus, Oct. 23
16. These McDonald’s Franchises Aren’t Pleased About Serving All-Day Breakfast
By Hayley Peterson, Oct. 15
17. Why You Should Eat Your Airplane Boarding Pass Once You Take Your Seat
By Jacob Brogan, Oct. 8
18. What We Learned from the Arizona Diamondbacks Sorority Selfie Scandal
By Amanda Hess, Oct. 1
19. A Chicago Man Bought a Dilapidated South Side Bank for $1 and Turned It Into a Gorgeous Cultural Center
By Kristin Hohenadel, Oct. 6
20. The Benghazi Hearing Was Supposed to Hurt Hillary’s Campaign. Instead It Will Be a Major Coup.
By Jamelle Bouie, Oct. 22
Notes: Stories published from Oct. 1 through Oct. 31 that had the most unique visitor traffic. Omits Dear Prudence stories.
The 20 Articles You Spent the Longest Time Reading
1. An All-Too-Familiar Story—Unarmed Black Man Killed by White Cop—With an Unfamiliar Ending
By Leon Neyfakh, Oct. 4
2. Mormon Missionaries Say the Church Failed to Treat Their Health Problems
By Mark Joseph Stern, Oct. 13
3. Remember the Guy Who Gave His Employees a $70,000 Minimum Wage? Here’s What Happened Next.
By Paul Keegan, Oct. 23 (Originaly published in Inc.)
4. Hillary Is Finally Testifying Before the House Benghazi Committee. Here’s What You Need to Know.
By Josh Voorhees, Oct. 21
5. This Swedish DJ Created the Template for Modern Pop. Why Have You Never Heard of Him?
By John Seabrook, Oct. 14
6. How My 3-Year-Old Son and I Gave Up Our Blankies—Together
By Nick Confalone, Oct. 22
7. Can Journalist-Turned–Pickup Artist Neil Strauss Reclaim His Soul?
By Laura Miller, Oct. 8
8. I Was on One of Those Canceled SXSW Panels. Here Is What Went Down.
By Caroline Sinders, Oct. 29
9. Live-Blogging Benghazi
By Josh Voorhees, Oct. 22
10. The Self-Made Castaway Who Spent 16 Years on an Atoll With His Cats
By Ella Morton, Oct. 26
11. The Top GOP Contenders Have a Problem With the Truth, Not the Press
By William Saletan, Oct. 29
12. The Bad Supreme Court Standard That Makes It Easy to Let Cops Who Kill Go Free
By Leon Neyfakh, Oct. 14
13. Ben Carson Knows Terrifyingly Little About the Government or the Economy
By Jordan Weissmann, Oct. 8
14. The Textbook Is Dying. Meet the Artificially Intelligent Software That’s Replacing It.
By Will Oremus, Oct. 25
15. Ken Jeong on Dr. Ken, Becoming a Leading Man, and the Early Backlash to His Show
By Jeff Yang, Oct. 5
16. The Nazi Judge Who Claimed He Fought Hitler by Overenthusiastically Enforcing Nazi Laws
By Charles Fried, Oct. 6
17. The Spectacular, Self-Destructive, Partisan Embarrassment of the Benghazi Hearing
By William Saletan, Oct. 23
18. Trump, Carson, and Bush Have All Benefitted From Get-Rich-Quick Companies That Prey on the Desperate
By Helaine Olen, Oct. 11
19. Reginald Artis Has Served Out Her 27-Year Prison Term. That Doesn’t Mean She Can Go Free.
By Leon Neyfakh, Oct. 9
20. TV Is More Diverse than Ever—on Screen. Why Not in the Writers’ Room?
By Aisha Harris, Oct. 18
Notes: Ranking omits Dear Prudence articles, news quiz, and videos. Time on page isn’t necessarily a measure of active reading time.
What You Missed
The best story we published in October that didn’t make any of these lists? Here’s what our editors said.
Deputy editor John Swansburg recommends Leon Neyfakh’s write-up of a provocative study that may upend the American understanding of criminal recidivism.
Culture editor Dan Kois wants you to explore the history of Japanese cinema by reading this reflective travelogue by movie critic Dana Stevens.
Ebola panic peaked in America a year ago—what were we thinking? Science and health editor Laura Helmuth offers this review of the predictions that were made and how they held up.
Laura also points out this fact check of recent remarks by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia about popular support for the death penalty.
And features editor Jessica Winter says,
I had a feeling this wonderful piece by Erin Ashenhurst wouldn’t get the audience it deserved when we published it—it’s so droll and subtle, so soft-spoken in its eloquence and deft observational wit, that you have to hold your ear closely to it, wait a moment to get on its wavelength. (For example, “For some, knowledge of textiles is handed down through generations” is the funniest topic sentence I’ve read in a while, but it took me a couple of beats to realize that.)
It also dawns on you slowly and subtly just how many things it’s about: parenting-based status anxiety, feminism’s generation gaps, the competence tiers of parenthood. And best of all, in lamenting the writer’s inability to create a beautiful and exquisitely crafted object, it becomes exactly that.
