"State Capture": How the Gupta Brothers Hijacked South Africa Using Bribes Instead of Bullets
It started with black market rations and ended with “the wedding of the century.”
Fiction Pick of the Week: "Color and Light"
Two brothers interact with a peculiar visitor.
When Does an Accident Become a Crime?
While driving through a dangerous curve in East Texas, James Fulton crossed into oncoming traffic and killed a young woman. The cops said the crash was an accident. But the Smith County DA saw it differently.
Patrick Radden Keefe is a New Yorker staff writer. His latest book is Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland.
“What was strange for me was that it was before I was born, almost a half-century ago. I went to Belfast and asked people about it and you could see the fear on people’s faces. So this notion that this event that’s older than I am still felt so radioactive in the present day was challenging from a reporting point of view, but it also, at every step along the way, made me feel as though it was good that I was doing this project. That this was not a kind of inert, stale history story I was telling. It was something that was vivid and palpable and menacing even now.”
Thanks to MailChimp, Squarespace, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
Pearls Before Breakfast
Can one of the nation’s great musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush hour?
Bill Hader Kills
A profile of the director and actor.
The Tragedy of Baltimore
How order collapsed in an American city.
Confessions of a Prep School College Counselor
“I had inherited a Rolodex full of useful phone numbers (the College Board, a helpful counselor in the UCLA admissions office), but the number I kept handing out was that of a family therapist.”
Death Before Decaf
Why do we hate decaf so much?
Florida Man
A profile of Harmony Korine, the creator of Kids, Spring Breakers, and The Beach Bum.
Superman Comes to the Supermarket
On JFK and the 1960 Democratic National Convention.
WWF's Secret War
How anti-poaching funds end up in the hands of vicious paramilitaries.
The Strange Case of Eugene Gu
A surgeon tastes viral fame via Twitter and then things get really weird.
The Provocations of Chef Tunde Wey
The aforementioned “twist” is that while dinner is free for the black residents of the neighborhood, the prices for white visitors are listed on a pledge form at their seats: $100 for one piece of chicken; $1,000 for four pieces. For a whole bird, with sides, you must donate the deed to a property in North Nashville.
Trauma
An interview with Meek Mill.
The Empathy Exams
On medical acting and real pain.
Out in the Great Alone
A trip to the Iditarod.
The Aldi Effect: How One Discount Supermarket Transformed the Way Britain Shops
When Aldi arrived in Britain, Tesco and Sainsbury’s were sure they had nothing to worry about. Three decades later, they know better.
The Embryo in the Hallway
Being pregnant again means being willing to end it.
The Coffin Business Is Booming in Central America Due to Gang Violence
In El Salvador, Jucuapa is home to dozens of small factories that churn out what some locals call the “wooden pajamas.”
Life and Limb
Inside the Rio Grande Valley’s amputation crisis.
The Unspeakable Choice
Can a good mother abandon her child?
Fiction Pick of the Week: "The Widows Club"
A group of wives discuss the results of their partners' hypothetical demises.
Would You Trust This Man?
A profile of reality-TV star Jax Taylor.
The Bloody Baron’s Crazy, Mixed-Up Robbery
George von Bothmer reported a violent home invasion by two men wielding guns and shouting death threats. Things only got weirder from there.
