The roots behind the headlines.
Rootread is a news-context publication. We don't race to break the news. We explain where it came from.
Most news coverage is written for people who already know the backstory. Rootread is written for everyone else, and for anyone who has ever read a headline and thought: wait, how did we get here?
Each story takes one major headline and traces its roots: the decisions, conflicts, and cultural currents, recent and centuries old, that make today's events make sense.
Two depths
Every story comes as a Short, a 90-second skim of the need-to-know background, and a Long Read, the full deep dive into history and culture.
Sourced, always
We link our sources at the bottom of every version, attribute every number, and never invent facts, figures, or quotes.
Plainly told
Smart but never stuffy. We write the way you'd explain it to a curious friend over coffee.
How we work
We start with what is verifiably happening now, using reporting from established news organizations. Then we go backwards, through history, to find the threads that connect. Our own analysis is labelled as such. When a story is still developing, we say so and note the date our reporting reflects.
Corrections
If we get something wrong, we fix it and say so on the story. History is contested, and so is the news. Being clear about what we know, and how we know it, is the point.
Start with our launch story.
Why France takes to the streets →