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Explore Pocket’s Top Articles

The year’s most intriguing ideas and indispensable advice, plus the top stories in science, technology, sports, culture, long reads, and more.

Pocket Editors

Read when you’ve got time to spare.

Each December, Pocket celebrates the very best of the web—the stories and articles that readers loved most over the past 12 months. This year’s Best of 2021 collections are eclectic lists, spanning dozens of articles and more than 40 publishers, highlighting the depth and breadth of what Pocket users saved and enjoyed the most: engrossing long reads that help us see the world from other perspectives (including a crow’s), explainers that demystify our increasingly complex world (what is a blockchain exactly?), and great advice for better living (like how to get more restful sleep if you found 2021 exhausting).

If you haven’t read these fantastic articles yet, save them to your Pocket and dig in when you have the time.

The Top 10

The most saved and read articles on Pocket in 2021.

Long Reads Worth the Time

Meditating on mortality, conversations with crows, and mango madness.

Big Ideas That Made Us Think

Reconsidering obesity, why the clock is political, and quitting careerism.

Enlightening Explainers

Why that “expired” food probably isn’t, how English spelling got so weird, and understanding the pandemic stock market boom.

Leading Business Reads

A hiring paradox, the mind of Jeff Bezos, and hacking McDonald’s ice cream machines.

Essential Science Articles

Searching for aliens, the most irrational number, and the triumph of homo sapiens.

Entertaining Culture Writing

Britney Spears’s conservatorship nightmare, the bad art friend, and the Dolly Parton moment.

Superlative Sports Journalism

Baseball’s biggest scandal, how Simone Biles chose herself, and the world’s greatest freediver.

The Advice We Needed This Year

Defining rest, raising helpful kids, and how to stop being so hard on yourself.

Stories That Defined the Year

The events and storylines that shaped a remarkable year and the articles that Pocket users saved to understand them.

Mood of the Year: Languishing

If you felt a chronic sense of ‘blah’ in 2021, you weren’t alone. Here’s a guide to recharging your emotional batteries and getting back on the road to thriving.

What We Learned in 2021

The articles that taught the Pocket team something new this year, from the surprisingly fascinating history of peanut butter to the spooky power of artificial intelligence.