Allison P. Davis is a staff writer at The Cut and New York.
“I have no real advice other than don’t fuck it up and be afraid all the time. That’s the key to success. Don’t fuck it up. Be a little bit anxious all the time.”
Thanks to MailChimp, Skagen, Aspen Ideas To Go, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
Johnson & Johnson knew for decades that asbestos lurked in its Baby Powder.
On space rocks and the people who chase them.
Internal documents show that the social network gave Microsoft, Amazon, Spotify and others far greater access to people’s data than it has disclosed.
The sinking of the Costa Concordia cruise ship.
We recommended 1,138 articles articles this year. These were our favorites.
Inside the most destructive fire in American history—and why the West’s cities and towns will keep on burning.
The corruption and cruelty of the state’s response to suspected jihadis and their families seem likely to lead to the resurgence of the terror group.
Jered Threatin tried to fake his way to fame and got caught red-handed. Or did he?
Wealthy businessman Merv Bodnarchuk put together the dream team of curling. Then he put himself in the lineup.
On writing memoirs for the rich.
Roger Stringer testified against his son Zac in the fatal shooting that killed his younger child. Now he believes Remington’s defective rifle is to blame.
How a cat litter scientist from Iowa ended up in an NBA star’s inner circle.
What happened next for the Barden family.
Two decades after his last deadly act of ecoterrorism, the Unabomber has become an unlikely prophet to a new generation of acolytes.
Dan Taberski is the host of Missing Richard Simmons and Surviving Y2K.
“Why would you walk into podcasting, where not a lot of rules have been written yet, why would walk into that space and be like, I'm just going to stick to the rules over here. It doesn't make any sense. ... Sourcing, respect for privacy — all these rules are here for a reason. And there's a line you shouldn't cross. But I don't see the point of not walking up to that line and looking over it. Because that is where interesting stuff is happening. ... To be able to earn that ability to cross the line a little bit and then jump back to where you belong, I think that's where beautiful storytelling happens.”
Thanks to MailChimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this bonus episode.
Charlie Santore sees Los Angeles from the inside, by breaking into safes whose owners can no longer unlock them.
On learning to live with the urge to die.
Christmas memories, lost love.
An eight-year campaign to slash the agency’s budget has left it understaffed, hamstrung and operating with archaic equipment. The result: billions less to fund the government. That’s good news for corporations and the wealthy.
Hitman-for-hire darknet sites are all scams. But some people turn up dead nonetheless.
Maria Streshinsky is the executive editor at Wired.
“Sometimes a story comes in and it’s really lovely and well done. And you think if you just got on the phone with this person and pointed out the structure is wrong here and the chronology is wrong here, ask them to change that and send them what is known at Wired as the ‘praise sandwich letter’: how wonderful something is, how much work it will need, how wonderful it will be. … It’s not the kiss of death, it’s ‘we have a lot of work to do.’ … There are lots of pieces that come in that you’ve assigned because it’s the person with the right information with the right access, and they’re a good reporter, but maybe not a terrific wordsmith. So, you do more rewriting. Then there’s the other person that’s a really lovely, lovely writer that doesn’t have the structure and the reporting so you push on that. It’s sort of a three or four-pronged thing—it depends on the piece. I will say, somewhat controversially, there aren’t that many pieces that come in pretty clean.”
Thanks to MailChimp, Skagen, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
The rise and fall of fraudster John DeLorean.
How one man’s quest to spread Christmas cheer led to a miserable four-year war with his neighborhood.
Tracing an airstrike halfway around the world back to an American bomb factory.
