A Scout's Honor
Pete Philo had a successful NBA career as a scout for the Pacers, Timberwolves, and Mavericks. He got all those jobs after being convicted of raping a teenager.
The Shape of Things To Come
How an industrial designer became Apple’s greatest product.
Cain and Abel and Oil
Greed, drugs, dirty cops, and the bitter sibling rivalry burning up an $800 million Louisiana family dynasty.
King of the Snitches: The Fashion Photographer Who Duped Drug Lords and the DEA
Baruch Vega ran a scheme that ensnared Colombian cocaine kingpins and gave him a life of luxury. Then one put a price on his head.
Fiction Pick of the Week: "The Dead Man"
An unexpected houseguest: a dead man.
What Does Putin Really Want?
Russia is dead set on being a global power. But what looks like grand strategy is often improvisation—amid America’s retreat.
Beta Blockers Were a Miracle Cure for My Stage Fright
Online startups can send you pills to cure anxiety. But is it safe to buy them?
Alex Mar has written for The Believer, Wired, and New York. She is the author of Witches of America and the director of the documentary American Mystic.
“I really do believe that all of us run on some kind of desire for meaning. And if someone is an atheist and they don’t subscribe to an organized system, it doesn’t mean that they don’t crave something. Maybe it’s their job. Or maybe it’s the way that they raise their children with a certain kind of intense focus. Or something else. As humans, we are built to crave meaning, right? For me, that was something that I wanted to explore about myself.”
Thanks to MailChimp, On the Media, The TED Interview,and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
In Conversation: Alanis Morissette
On pregnancy at 45, childbirth, postpartum depression, and #MeToo.
The Last Ride of Cowboy Bob
Peggy Jo Tallas spent most of her adult life doing two things: taking care of her ailing mother and robbing bank after bank dressed as a pudgy, bearded cowboy.
Trump Keeps Talking About the Last Military Standoff With Iran — Here’s What Really Happened
“The Farsi Island mission was a gross failure, involving issues that have plagued the Navy in recent years: inadequate training, poor leadership, and a disinclination to heed the warnings of its men and women about the true extent of its vulnerabilities.”
Best Article Reprints Arts Movies & TV
The Great Escape
How the CIA used a fake science fiction film to sneak six Americans out of revolutionary Iran. The declassified story that became Ben Affleck’s Argo.
When The Robert Kraft Case Fell Apart, The Women Were Left To Pay The Price
What happened to the women in the Robert Kraft massage parlor case? And why did the case collapse?
The Polygamist Accused of Scamming the U.S. Out of $500 Million
Did a member in a shadowy Mormon offshoot known as the Order collect a half-billion dollars in biodiesel credits his company didn’t deserve?
Tell Us What You Need
When patients turn to crowdfunding for medical costs, whoever has the most heartrending story wins.
Fear, Misinformation, and Measles Spread in Brooklyn
How a disease came back.
The Wild Ride at Babe.Net
The Aziz Ansari controversy was just the beginning of the trouble for the website.
The Judge and the Three-Strikes Convict
The story of a lifelong addict and an unlikely friendship.
The Itch
What the sensation of uncontrollable itch and the phantom limbs of amputees can tell us about how the brain works.
The Storm
Six young men set out on a dead-calm sea to seek their fortunes. Suddenly they were hit by the worst gale in a century, and there wasn’t even time to shout. The article that eventually became The Perfect Storm.
Hideous Men
Donald Trump assaulted me in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room 23 years ago. But he’s not alone on the list of awful men in my life.
Ana Kriégel Murder Trial: The Complete Story
In May 2018, schoolgirl Ana Kriégel was lured from her home, brought to an abandoned house, and murdered. A year later two 14-year-old boys were found guilty of her killing, becoming the youngest people in the history of Ireland to be convicted of murder.
Judge Judy Is Still Judging You
For more than 20 years, Judith Sheindlin has dominated daytime ratings—by making justice in a complicated world look easy.
The Revenge of the Poverty-Stricken College Professors Is Underway in Florida. And It's Big.
In just the past few years, one union has organized close to 10,000 Florida adjuncts, in what is one of the most remarkable and little-noticed large scale labor campaigns in the country.
The Unsolved Mystery of the Malibu Creek Murder
A man named Tristan Beaudette was killed while camping in Malibu Creek State Park with his two young daughters. For residents, it became a true crime sensation. But for his family, it was something very different.
