Syria’s Last Bastion of Freedom
Amid the brutal civil war, a town fought off the regime and the fundamentalists—and dared to hold an election. Can its experiment in democracy survive?
Steadfast, Honest, and True
A profile of Bruce Springsteen.
Ivy League Hopes Were Real. The Rest Was Fake.
The actual story behind those viral college acceptance videos out of T.M. Landry.
The American Man at Age Ten
A profile of a suburban New Jersey fifth-grader named Colin Duffy.
George Bush, 41st President, Dies at 94
An obituary.
The Genius Neuroscientist Who Might Hold the Key to True AI
Karl Friston’s free energy principle might be the most all-encompassing idea since Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection.
Investigating Hate
Inside New York City’s task force on bias.
The Insect Apocalypse Is Here
What does it mean for the rest of life on Earth?
Perversion of Justice
A decade before #MeToo, a multimillionaire sex offender from Florida got the ultimate break.
Fiction Pick of the Week: "Like Sisters"
The rise and fall of friendship.
“I Don’t Want to Shoot You, Brother”
In 2016, a West Virginia police officer came upon a young man in distress who asked the officer to shoot him. The officer didn’t. A few minutes, another officer did. Only one of them lost their job.
My Love-Hate Relationship With Instagram
A profile of an influencer.
Irin Carmon is a senior correspondent at New York, a contributor at CNN, and the co-author of Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“The fact that we were part of this entire wave of reporting was actually exhilarating. Even when it was competitive. For me, my desire to do this comes out of a broader set of commitments to the world. I’m a feminist and I’m a journalist. The ability to do feminist investigative journalism felt like a gift. And it also felt like, wow, this thing I’d been working on for a long time is something that institutions—the most prestigious and well-resourced institutions—wanted to put resources to. … I think that that kind of commitment is significant in our culture because it is validating it as a point of inquiry.”
Thanks to MailChimp, Skagen, TBD with Tina Brown, Screen Dive, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
The Boys in the Band
On the 13-member rap collective Brockhampton.
A Business With No End
Inside the maze of an Amazon scam storefront empire.
The Unified Theory Of Ram Dass
“You just stay with the moment.”
Karl Taylor's Death Was an Avoidable Tragedy
American prisons can’t handle mentally ill inmates.
Breast Implant Injuries Kept Hidden As New Health Threats Surface
Manufacturers fought to get implants back on the market. Regulators gave in. Now thousands of patients are paying the price.
The Brothers Aguayo
On a pair of kickers.
Field of Dreams
Heartbreak and heroics at the World Ploughing Championships
"Yeah, I'm Not For Everyone"
Lena Dunham comes to terms with herself.
Three Feet From God: An Oral History of Nirvana ‘Unplugged’
An oral history of Nirvana ‘Unplugged.’
The Killer Elite
Published across three consecutive issues and later adapted into the book (and mini-series) Generation Kill, the story of bullets, bombs and a Marine platoon at war in Iraq.
The Unsatisfying Truth About Hateful Online Rhetoric and Violence
Two angry men submerged themselves in the far-right internet. One committed murder. The other walked away. Why?
Secrets of the Magus
A 1993 profile of Ricky Jay, world-class sleight-of-hand conjurer who rarely performs (and never for children), historian of unusual entertainments and confidence scams, bibliomaniac.
