Why Did Derrick Gordon Make History and Then Suddenly Shun the Spotlight?
What happened after the first openly gay player in Division I men’s basketball came out.
On Pandering
“She can write like a man, they said, by which they meant, She can write.”
In Conversation: DeRay Mckesson
An interview about Black Lives Matter and the last 18 months of activism in America.
The Keys To Enya's Kingdom
A trip to Enya’s castle in Ireland.
The Rise of the Artisanal Funeral
A 30-year-old funeral director in LA wants to help the living get closer to death.
The Desert Blues
The musicians of Mali find themselves in the middle of a civil war.
ISIS Women and Enforcers in Syria Recount Collaboration, Anguish and Escape
They were cousins who grow up in Raqqa amidst parties, beaches, even bikinis. They married ISIS fighters to protect their families, then became morality policers.
The Samoan Pipeline
How a tiny island 5,000 miles from the U.S. mainland has produced so many NFL players.
Why South African Students Have Turned on Their Parents’ Generation
Inside a movement.
Magical Thinking About ISIS
On the response to the Paris attacks.
The Doomsday Invention
Will artificial intelligence bring utopia or destruction?
An Oral History of the Nerdier Half of Freaks and Geeks
Looking back on the making of Sam, Bill, and Neal.
The Frauds of Memory, the Limits of Penitence. And Baseball.
On God, childhood, and baseball.
The Doomsday Scam
Bomb makers—including ISIS—have been on a quest to obtain red mercury, a weapon reputed to be powerful enough to “create the city-flattening blast of a nuclear bomb.” They haven’t found it yet. That might be because it doesn’t exist.
The Murderers Next Door
In a remote corner of Romania, neighbors kill each other over tiny strips of land.
Fiction Pick of the Week: "The Way You Look at Me"
Marriage, infidelity, distance, and communications.
The Asteroid Hunters
It’s highly unlikely that a gigantic space rock will crash through our atmosphere and destroy civilization as we know it. But it’s not impossible either. Which is why a small but growing community of scientists and astronomers are scrambling to spot and destroy dangerous asteroids long before they hit us.
Landlocked Islanders
Displaced from the Marshall Islands, residents build a new life in Oklahoma.
Kurt Andersen is the co-founder of Spy Magazine, the author of several books, and the host of Studio 360.
“As a young person, I never thought of myself as a risk-taker. Then I did this risky thing that shouldn't have succeeded, I started this magazine. And it did encourage me to think, ‘Eh, how bad can it be if it fails? Sometimes these long shots work. So fuck it, try it.’”
Thanks to MailChimp, MasterClass, The Message, RealtyShares, and Prudential for sponsoring this week's episode.
“Why Him, Why Me?”
The death of a high school football player and the life that has followed for the kid who made the hit.
Holiday at the Dictator’s Guesthouse
The story of Jeffrey Fowle, an Ohio man who tried to smuggle a Bible into North Korea.
The Silicon Valley Suicides
Why are so many teenagers killing themselves in Palo Alto?
Biography of a Face
The story of a transplant from a 26-year-old bike mechanic to a 41-year-old fireman with severe burns.
Q&A: Barack Obama and Bill Simmons
A conversation about leadership, Grantland, regret, and the President’s favorite conspiracy theories.
On Gawker’s Problem With Women
A former staffer on how the company failed its female employees.
