Losing Laura
Laura Levis did everything she could to save herself when an asthma attack began. How could she have been left to die just outside the emergency room?
Ghosts of Greenwood
A reporter encounters the echoes of family and the struggle for civil rights in Mississippi.
Fog Count
What prison does to a person.
The Upgrade
Why doctors hate their computers.
A Florida Woman Disappeared, But She Never Left Home
Piecing together the quiet, lonely life of Kathryn Norris.
The Time Capsule That’s as Big as Human History
When the apocalypse comes, survivors (and aliens!) will be happy that Martin Kunze built this place.
Letters From an Arsonist
Thomas Sweatt torched D.C. for decades and was finally jailed for killing one person. During a year-long correspondence from prison with a reporter, he confessed there were more.
U.S. Law Enforcement Failed to See the Threat of White Nationalism. Now They Don’t Know How to Stop It.
For two decades, domestic counterterrorism strategy has ignored the rising danger of far-right extremism. In the atmosphere of willful indifference, a virulent movement has grown and metastasized.
How the War in Yemen Became a Bloody Stalemate—and the Worst Humanitarian Crisis in the World
Saudi Arabia thought a bombing campaign would quickly crush its enemies in Yemen. But three years later, the Houthis refuse to give up, even as 14 million people face starvation.
Cardinal Sin
Cardinal Bernard Law knew as early as 1984 John Geoghan was molesting children. The priest would not be defrocked for 14 years.
Don’t Call Tom Steyer a Mega-Donor
A profile of the billionaire influencer.
My Life Cleanse: One Month Inside L.A.'s Cult of Betterness
A month-long tour inside L.A.’s cultish world of wellness.
My Father Says He's A 'Targeted Individual.' Maybe We All Are
A daughter investigates her father’s belief that the government is subjecting him and thousands more to to mind control.
What Makes Superstar Conductor Gustavo Dudamel So Good?
The Venezuelan maestro of the Los Angeles Philharmonic conjures joy in difficult times.
Fiction Pick of the Week: "Ghost Stories"
Ghostly stories and family tragedies.
The Whalers' Odyssey
A courageous tribe, a colossal foe, and a terrifying ocean voyage.
TPE-JFK
“I’ve increasingly become aware of how much of my reputation in Taiwan is built on the knowledge of my New York upbringing.”
The Time Bandits of Southern California
The true story of a ring of thieves who stole millions of dollars’ worth of luxury watches—and the special agent who brought them down.
Joe Hagan is a correspondent at Vanity Fair and the author of Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine.
“It’s the story that begins with John Lennon on the cover of Rolling Stone in 1967 and ends with Donald Trump in the White House. In many ways the book takes you there, I wanted it to. It takes you through the culture as it metastasizes into what it is now. It had a lot to do with a sense of the age of narcissism. The worship of celebrity. Jann was very into celebrity, and worshipful of it and glorifying it and turning it into a thing and eventually celebrity displaces a lot of the ideas they originally started with in my estimation. That was a narrative thread that I began to pull in the book.”
Thanks to MailChimp, Skagen, Screen Dive podcast, Stoner podcast, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
The Tragedy of Saudi Arabia's War
How an economic war has pushed millions to the brink of starvation.
Heaven Was a Place in Harlem
On the radical tableside evangelism of Father Divine.
The Bulger Mystique
A four-part investigation of brothers William and James ‘Whitey’ Bulger. One was president of the Massachusetts Senate for 17 years. The other was on the lam for 16 years before being captured.
On the Nose
Sissel Tolaas is a star in the world of smells. Her methods are not always subtle.
The Get-Rich-Quick Scheme That Almost Killed a German Soccer Team
An electrician’s odd plot to make $607,933.50.
Lady Leadfoot
She raced cars when few women dared. But more than trophies or prize money, it was the zen of driving that pulled her in. This is the story of Denise McCluggage, America’s once-fastest woman.
