‘How’s Amanda?’
A story of truth, lies, and an American addiction.
We Are All Witnesses
The private grief of Samaria Rice, twenty months after her son Tamir was killed.
“Don’t forget. You see all these protests. That’s good. You see this whole movement. That’s good. You see all these different people with all these different agendas. You see celebrities making speeches. But underneath it all there’s somebody like me with a dead son.”
Brexit Blues
“If I had to pick one sentence I’ve heard more than any other in the last six years of conversation about economics, it would be ‘Why aren’t people more angry?’ The Brexit vote showed that plenty of them are. But perhaps it expressed that other feeling, the one of bewilderment, just as much. ‘Take back control’ is a cynical but extremely astute pitch to an electorate in that state of mind.”
You Haven’t Seen Everything John Cho Can Do
A conversation about race, Hollywood, and what it’s like to be able to conjure weed out of thin air.
Always Funny, Finally Famous
A profile of comedian Leslie Jones, who made Saturday Night Live after 25 years as a road comic.
The Man Who Loved Grizzlies
On Timothy Treadwell, who lived and died with the bears of Alaska.
The Tween-Ruled App Turning Middle Schoolers Into Pop Stars
The lip-syncing app Musical.ly claims that it has signed up 50% of American teens.
Voltaire’s Luck
How the French philosopher earned the means to publish freely by winning the lottery—repeatedly.
A Death on Usenet
Sharon Lopatka had found many identities on Usenet: VHS interior decoration pitch-woman, author of love spells, and pornographic film scammer. Her final posts concerned wanting to find someone to torture her to death.
The Yunited States of Yuge
A look inside Donald Trump’s portfolio of exclusive real estate properties.
Fiction Pick of the Week: "Stuff"
A terminally ill journalist deals with a variety of setbacks.
Reign, Supreme
Supreme, founded by a secretive self-made millionaire in 1994, is the most influential streetwear brand in the world.
David Remnick is the editor of The New Yorker.
“I think it’s important — not just for me, but for the readers — that this thing exists at the highest possible level in 2016, in 2017, and on. That there’s a continuity to it. I know, because I’m not entirely stupid, that these institutions, no matter how good they are, all institutions are innately fragile. Innately fragile.”
Thanks to MailChimp, Audible, EveryLibrary, and Igloo for sponsoring this week's episode.
Arrow Heads
Life as an Olympic-level archer.
A Terrifying Journey Through the World's Most Dangerous Jungle
The Darién Gap is a lawless wilderness on the border of Colombia and Panama teeming with everything from deadly snakes to antigovernment guerrillas. For many migrants, crossing it is their only way to get to America.
Opium, Made Easy
It’s legal to buy poppy seeds in America and it’s legal to plant them—unless you’re familiar with the simple process of turning them into opium, that is. Then having poppies in your garden is a felony.
The American Who Accidentally Became a Chinese Movie Star
Jonathan Kos-Read’s long, strange trip to movie stardom.
The Civil War that Could Doom the N.R.A.
There’s a growing gap between the gun lobby’s leadership and its rank-and-file.
Families Failed by a Broken Mental Health Care System Often Have No One to Call but Police
The results can be deadly.
Donald Trump’s Ghostwriter Tells All
Writing The Art of the Deal made Tony Schwartz rich. He still regrets it.
“I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization.”
Confessions of a Dishonest Slob: How the Haters and Losers Got Trump...
Donald Trump has spent decades seeking revenge on the many people who have taunted him. One of them was this reporter, who two years ago wrote that Trump would never run.
Interview: Vince Staples
“Life has a soundtrack. And certain music is a soundtrack to a certain type of identity or feeling. 50 Cent, the Game, and those kinds of guys—they made us feel like our lives were worth nothing, basically.”
The Yosemite Horror
In the late 1990s, a serial killer found his victims in Yosemite National Park.
The Lazarus File
A murder case in Los Angeles, cold since the late ’80s, heats up thanks to breakthroughs in forensic science and leads detectives to “one of the unlikeliest murder suspects in the city’s history.”
Allergic to Life: The Arizona Residents "Sensitive to the Whole World"
For those who suffer from environmental illnesses, the town of Snowflake is an escape from a modern world full of allergens: fragrances, gluten, wifi.
