Bees, Inc.
Save the honeybee, sterilize the earth.
The Edward Snowdens of 1971
In March 1971, John and Bonnie Raines broke into an FBI office, stealing documents that revealed that the government was spying on its own citizens. Today, they’re hailed as heroes. Is this what the future holds for Edward Snowden?
The Cannabis Queen of Beverly Hills
Cheryl Shuman has been a coupon queen, an optician to the stars and the plaintiff in a lawsuit against Steven Segal. Now she’s the face of the high-end weed market.
Artists in Uniform
"The Colonel went out sailing. He spoke with Turk and Jew . . ."
The Art of Fiction No. 90: Robert Stone
An interview with the novelist, who died on Saturday.
“There’s only one subject for fiction or poetry or even a joke: how it is. In all the arts, the payoff is always the same: recognition. If it works, you say that’s real, that’s truth, that’s life, that’s the way things are. ‘There it is.’”
No Matter How Your Heart Is Grieving: Disney for the Sad
Visiting Disney World during times of loss and sorrow.
Taking Care of Our Own
The dilemma of providing quality health care for undocumented immigrants, and how one city is attempting to solve it.
The Lost Girls
Inside the world of underground sex trafficking in Houston.
Mainline Street
What does it take for heroin to grab hold in the small, remote towns of America? Like any business, it starts with one man and an entrepreneurial dream.
“If you’d like to relive your horrible moment, if you want people to know what actually happened, talk to me. I will tell your story.” — Sean Flynn on the Longform Podcast
The Murder That Has Obsessed Italy
“‘It’s like a novel,’ a newspaper editor once told me, shaking his head. When I recently asked Ruggeri, the chief investigator, to sum up the case, she stared at her desk and just said ‘incredible’ four times.”
A River Runs Through It
A biography of Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios.
“So the stakes are high. I’m not just writing this to write. I’m writing because I think there’s something I need to say.” — Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah on the Longform Podcast
Into Afghanistan’s Taliban Valley
Untouched by Western journalists except in the presence of American troops, Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley was once the most violent part of the Afghan War.
Addict, Priest, Luchador
The unbelievable life of Fray Tormenta.
The Belfast Operation
Bringing down a cocaine empire in 1980s rural Maine.
To the Office, With Love
What do we give up when we become freedom-seeking, self-determining, autonomous entrepreneurs? A lot, actually.
Fiction Pick of the Week: "Switzerland Today"
Playing with a disabled boy on a summer afternoon.
The Search for Petr Khokhlov
A Russian soldier vanishes in Ukraine.
Scare Tactics
Michel Houellebecq on his controversial new novel, Submission, which imagines France electing its first Muslim president.
The Wanderer
Noah Lennox—better known as Panda Bear—has lived in Lisbon for a decade. How has the Portuguese capital shaped his life and work?
Voices from Chernobyl
“'You have to understand: This is not your husband anymore, not a beloved person, but a radioactive object with a strong density of poisoning. You’re not suicidal. Get a hold of yourself.' And I was like someone who’d lost her mind: 'But I love him! I love him!' He’s sleeping, and I’m whispering: 'I love you!' Walking in the hospital courtyard, 'I love you.' Carrying his sanitary tray, 'I love you.'”
Nicholas Carlson writes for Business Insider. His book Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo! came out this week.
“To me people are what’s really interesting. Marissa Mayer is a once in a lifetime subject. She’s full of contradictions. … There are a million business stories, but if you don’t have that character at the center then you’re lost.”
Thanks to TinyLetter, Lynda and Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode.
What Happened When Marissa Mayer Tried to Be Steve Jobs
The inside story of how Yahoo’s C.E.O. lost her way.
How White Flight Ravaged the Mississippi Delta
For generations, plantation owners strove to keep black laborers on the farm and competing businesses out of town. Today, the towns faring best are the ones whose white residents stayed to reckon with their own history.
Raëlism
Founded in 1974, the Raëlian Movement teaches that life on Earth was scientifically created by a species of extraterrestrials. Raëlians claim to have cloned the first human being and extol sensuality and pleasure as a path to peace.
Dry
The water’s nearly gone in the San Joaquin Valley, and an old farmer sees the writing on the wall.
