Nancy Reagan’s Solo Role
A conversation with the former first lady five years into her life as a widow.
A conversation with the former first lady five years into her life as a widow.
Bob Colacello Vanity Fair Jun 2009 25min Permalink
The author ponders the dissolution of his own marriage, and others.
Pat Conroy Atlanta Magazine Nov 1978 15min Permalink
“I’ll tell you what freedom is to me: no fear. I mean really, no fear!”
Adam Shatz New York Review of Books Mar 2016 15min Permalink
On a small section of land wedged between Egypt and Sudan called Bir Tawil and the American who tried to claim it for himself.
Jack Shenker The Guardian Mar 2016 25min Permalink
Between 1937 and 1973, Earl Johnson served out the sentences on nine felonies, worked for Charlie “Cherry Nose” Gio, became friends with a Soviet spy, and tried to kill “Joe Cargo” Valachi of the Cosa Nostra with a poison dart.
David Harris Rolling Stone Dec 1973 30min Permalink
“After 14 years I finally reported him. In the eyes of the law, my biggest mistake was not fearing him more.”
Roni Jacobson Backchannel Feb 2016 15min Permalink
How a detachment of U.S. Army soldiers smoked out the original Ku Klux Klan.
Matthew Pearl Slate Mar 2016 3h5min Permalink
On the eve of the Iditarod, our favorite articles ever written about "the last great race."
Spending the summer as a tour guide on a glacier.
Blair Braverman The Atavist Jun 2015 30min
A trip to the Iditarod.
Brian Phillips Grantland Apr 2013 20min
Following the Yukon Quest, the Iditarod’s thousand-mile rival.
John Balzar Los Angeles Times Mar 1997 20min
Behind the scenes at the Yukon Quest.
Eva Holland SB Nation Mar 2013 20min
On Alaska’s mushing dynasties.
Ben McGrath New Yorker Apr 2013 40min
A profile of the Michael Jordan of mushing.
Mar 1997 – Jun 2015 Permalink
The post-newsroom lives of veteran newspaper reporters who have lost their jobs.
Dale Mahardige The Nation Mar 2016 Permalink
Middle class apps struggle to survive.
Casey Newton The Verge Mar 2016 15min Permalink
Munich, the Dream Team, and the search for Nadia Comaneci—a collection of articles on the highs and lows of Olympic history.
The first modern games were staged in 1850 by a surgeon named William Penny Brookes in a town called Much Wenlock.
Frank Deford Smithsonian Jul 2012
An American gold medalist in the hurdles describes his experience at the 1896 Olympics in Athens.
Thomas P. Curtis The Atlantic Dec 1932 10min
On the scene of the darkest games in Olympic history.
E.J. Kahn New Yorker Sep 1972 15min
Three years after her gold-medal performance—and amidst rumors of a fall from grace—the author travels to Transylvania to track down gymnast Nadia Comaneci. He also enjoys several drinks with her coach, Béla Károlyi.
Bob Ottum Sports Illustrated Nov 1979 25min
On the eve of the 1992 Summer Olympics, the Dream Team held a closed-door scrimmage in Monaco. Michael Jordan led one team, Magic Johnson the other. Two decades later, a game report.
Jack McCallum Sports Illustrated Jul 2012 25min
How the media and law enforcement fingered the wrong man for the 1996 Olympic Park bombing.
Marrie Brenner Vanity Fair Feb 1997 1h15min
Sex in the Olympic Village.
Sam Alipour ESPN Jul 2012 15min
How science is “helping athletes approach perfection.”
Mark McClusky Wired Jun 2012 15min
How the government cleared the streets in advance of the 1988 Olympics.
Kim Ton-Hyung, Foster Klug Associated Press Apr 2016 15min
Dec 1932 – Apr 2016 Permalink
The unexpected evolution of Olympic medalist Debi Thomas.
Terrence McCoy Washington Post Feb 2016 10min Permalink
A young girl uses unusual coping mechanisms after her father's death.
Erica X Eisen Atticus Review Mar 2016 Permalink
A trip to Japan and a glimpse of our automated future.
Gideon Lewis-Kraus Wired Mar 2016 30min Permalink
Heather Havrilesky writes the Ask Polly advice column for New York and is the author of the upcoming How to Be a Person in the World.
“I don’t give a shit if I succeed or fail or what I do next, I just want to do things that are strange and not sound bitey. I don’t want to be polished. I want to be such a wreck that no one will ever say ‘let’s put her on her own talk show.’”
Thanks to MailChimp, Audible, and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode.
Mar 2016 Permalink
How a burst blood vessel transformed the mind of a deliberate, controlled chiropractor into that of an utterly unfiltered, massively prolific artist.
Andrew Corsello GQ Jan 1997 25min Permalink
How a young Afghan trucking-company owner became spectacularly rich.
Matthieu Aikins New Yorker Feb 2016 30min Permalink
How the Baylor University Medical Center became a force in the heart transplant business.
Matt Goodman D Magazine Feb 2016 20min Permalink
Wayne Simmons was ideal conservative commentator. A former C.I.A. operative, he ate lunch with Donald Rumsfeld, took trips to Guantánamo aboard Air Force Two, and pumped the party line on Fox News. There was only one problem: Simmons had never been in the C.I.A.
Alex French New York Times Magazine Mar 2016 20min Permalink
In his own final days, a Right to Die activist tells the story of his secret, illegal assisted-suicide service.
John Hofsess Toronto Life Feb 2016 15min Permalink
Searching for meaning at Baldwin’s soon-to-be-demolished home in France.
Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah Buzzfeed Feb 2016 25min Permalink
On September 14, 2001, Lyle Stevik checked into the Lake Quinault Inn. Three days later, the motel’s housekeeper found him dead. But “Lyle Stevik,” it turns out, was an alias.
The original article that inspired the movie Spotlight.
Matt Carroll, Sacha Pfeiffer, Michael Rezendes Boston Globe Jan 2002 15min Permalink
A civil trial of Officer Marco Proano, who shot Niko Husband in 2011, finds him not guilty. By accident.
Steve Bogira Chicago Reader Feb 2016 50min Permalink
The difficult business of spending money well.
Michael Hobbes Huffington Post Highline Feb 2016 25min Permalink