Fiction Pick of the Week: "Townie"
Details of a quarter-life crisis.
The Pretender
People in Blooming Prairie, Minnesota, thought Lois Reiss was a nice wife and grandmother. If she had a vice, it was playing the slots. Then she committed murder.
Nicholson Baker is the author of 18 books of fiction and nonfiction. He has written for The New Yorker, Harper’s, and many other publications. His latest book is Baseless: My Search for Secrets in the Ruins of the Freedom of Information Act.
"In the end, I don’t care how famous you get, how widely read you are during your lifetime. You’re going to be forgotten. And you’re going to have five or six fans in the end. It’s going to be your grandchildren or your great-grandchildren are going to say, Oh, yeah, he was big. … So I think the key is, write what you actually care about. Because in the end, you’re only doing this for yourself. … So maybe do your best stuff for yourself and for the three, four, five people who know in the coming century that you ever existed. That’s all you need to do."
Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode.
The Students Left Behind by Remote Learning
Has a desire to keep the coronavirus out of schools put children’s long-term well-being at stake?
Heartbreaker
A prolific con artist, decades of grift, and a trail of shattered relationships.
The IRS Tried to Take on the Ultrawealthy. It Didn’t Go Well.
Ten years ago, the tax agency formed a special team to unravel the complex tax-lowering strategies of the nation’s wealthiest people. It never had a chance.
What Is Lifestyle?
An investigation.
Techie Software Soldier Spy
Is Palantir’s crystal ball just smoke and mirrors?
The Swift, Cruel, Incredible Rise of Amoako Boafo
How feverish selling and infighting built the buzziest artist of 2020.
Marilynne Robinson’s Essential American Stories
A profile of the author, who “looks to history not just for the origins of America’s ailments but for their remedy, too.”
Where Camels Take to the Sea
In Gujarat, India, a special breed of camel is not constrained by land—but cannot escape the many forces of change.
The President's Taxes
“Donald J. Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750.”
Inside eBay’s Cockroach Cult
How eBay’s Global Security and Resiliency team ran a rogue campaign to terrorize a blogger couple with insects, pornography and pizza.
XXXXL
A journey to the Ukraine to learn from the world's tallest man.
Leonid S. is eight and a half feet tall, and he is still growing. He is 34 years old, weighs 480 pounds, and he is still growing. He can't fit in a car, wears size 26 EEEEE shoes, can pick apples eleven feet off the ground standing flat-footed, and yes, he is still growing.
Lizzo on Hope, Justice, and the Election
A profile of the singer.
Pirates of the Highways
On America’s interstates, brazen bands of thieves steal 18-wheelers filled with computers, cell phones, even toilet paper. And select law enforcement teams are tasked with tracking them down.
The Democracy Factory
For decades, the vote-by-mail business was a sleepy industry that stayed out of the spotlight. Then came 2020.
Fiction Pick of the Week: "Haunted"
A Black writer haunts a fussy editor.
How QAnon Conspiracy Theories Spread In My Colorado Hometown
During the pandemic, people from the author’s hometown got sucked into QAnon and the Q-adjacent “Save the Children” movement.
Mark in the Middle
For years, Mark Zuckerberg has faced criticism that Facebook is bad for democracy. A cache of leaked audio reveals the story of how much ultimately comes down to his judgment—and the forces freezing him in place.
Ihor Kolomoisky’s Untold American Legacy
With Deutsche Bank’s help, an oligarch’s buying spree trails ruin across the US heartland.
Elizabeth Weil covers California and the climate for ProPublica. She has written for The New York Times Magazine, California Sunday, and more.
“As a journalist you’re endlessly asking people to tell you really personal, really vulnerable stuff about their lives. And I feel like you have to be willing to be in that conversation too—or really think about why you’re not willing.”
Thanks to Mailchimp for sponsoring this week's episode.
The Election That Could Break America
If the vote is close, Donald Trump could easily throw the election into chaos and subvert the result. Who will stop him?
The Desk and the Daring
On the work of Vivian Gornick.
The Swedish Serial Killer Who Never Was
Thomas Quick confessed to more than 30 murders. But the man also known as Sture Bergwall may not have committed any of them.
