Will You Ever Change?
Can face-to-face meetings between a victim and an abuser—a form of restorative justice—help a society overwhelmed with bad behavior?
The Fire That Forged Giannis Antetokounmpo
On the early NBA days of the league’s newest champion.
Robert McKee is an author and screenwriting lecturer. His new book is Character: The Art of Role and Cast Design for Page, Stage, and Screen.
”When I'm in conversation with others, I'm always aware—or sensitive, at least—to what they're really thinking and feeling. And writers must have that. They can't possibly create excellent nonfiction or fiction if they're not aware of what is going on inside of other people, really, even subconsciously, while they go about saying whatever they do consciously in the world. Because if you just recorded the surface, if you were just paying attention to the surface, you'd be missing the whole show.”
Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode.
Fraud on the Farm
How a baby-faced CEO turned a Farmville clone into a massive Ponzi scheme.
The Drone Leaker
Daniel Hale exposed the machinery of America’s clandestine warfare. Why did no one seem to care?
Playing God
One man’s obsession with his miniature Christmas village.
Penniless
A Canadian man won’t touch money, except to destroy it.
Who Wants to Be a Cop?
After a reckoning over policing in America, 30 recruits enroll at the academy.
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The New Recruits
“I want to be the change.”
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Pepper Spray
“This could happen to you.”
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Walmart
“What did you think this job was?”
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The Shoot House
“Just like that: Bang! You’re dead.”
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Cop Cars
“Love the aggression.”
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The Run
“Get him to the grass!”
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Bloody Friday
“You change when you become a cop.”
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End of Watch
“One family! One fight!”
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Epilogue
After the academy, new officers meet real-world challenges.
Lyubov Sobol’s Hope for Russia
Wih Alexey Navalny in prison, one of his closest aides is carrying on the lonely work of the opposition.
Stories About My Brother
The writer investigates her brother’s death, their complicated relationship, and the disturbing mysteries he left behind.
The Truth Behind the Amazon Mystery Seeds
Why did so many Americans receive strange packages they didn’t think they’d ordered?
The Rise and Fall of the Ultimate Doomsday Prepper
Novelist Brad Thor thought he had found his doomsday-prepping soulmate, but then the End Times went bad.
Where Is Cuba Going?
A nation’s uncertain future.
Prisoners, Doctors, and the Battle Over Trans Medical Care
Those who are incarcerated are suing for their right to gender confirmation surgery—if deemed necessary. Meet the psychiatrist who almost always says it’s not.
One by One, My Friends Were Sent to the Camps
A celebrated Uyghur writer gives a first-person account of the genocide in Xinjiang.
The Toppling of Saddam’s Statue: How the US Military Made a Myth
In 2003, the destruction of one particular statue in Baghdad made worldwide headlines and came to be a symbol of western victory in Iraq. But there was so much more to it—or rather, so much less.
Hard Bargain
How Amazon turned a generation against labor.
Erik Prince's $10 Billion Plan to Make Weapons and Create a Private Army in Ukraine
...Prince hoped to hire Ukraine’s combat veterans into a private military company. Prince also wanted a big piece of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex, including factories that make engines for fighter jets and helicopters."
Why Are So Many Outdoorsy People Terrible With Money?
When I was 27, I quit my job to travel and ski-bum, and by that point I had managed to save a small sum that could float me for a year. I called it my fuck-you money, because if I was ever in a situation I didn’t like—stuck in a job or with a boyfriend I wanted to leave—I could say fuck you and go. Living in ski towns is how I learned the dirtbag lifestyle, and to my surprise I took to it naturally and with enthusiasm.
At This Table We Sing With Joy, With Sorrow
On the chef Sean Sherman.
On Witness and Respair: A Personal Tragedy Followed by Pandemic
On losing your Beloved in 2020.
Ripping Off Young America: The College-Loan Scandal
“The dirty secret of American higher education is that student-loan interest rates are almost irrelevant. It’s not the cost of the loan that’s the problem, it’s the principal—the appallingly high tuition costs that have been soaring at two to three times the rate of inflation, an irrational upward trajectory eerily reminiscent of skyrocketing housing prices in the years before 2008.”
The Kids Are Alright
Why now is the time to rethink COVID safety protocols for children—and everyone else.
Trey Mancini's Remarkable Return
How the Baltimore Orioles first baseman overcame stage 3 colon cancer.
The Road Home
The Texas Department of Transportation intends to spend $25 billion widening highways to fix traffic in Texas cities. What if we tore them down instead?
