Fascinating Fascism
On a book of photographs shot by Leni Riefenstahl in the 1950s and 1960s depicting an African tribe.
Thirteen Ways of Looking at Greg Maddux
An essay on the pitcher, friendship and death.
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Readers' Poll: These Are Your Five Favorite Soccer Articles
Last week we celebrated the launch of our beloved EA SPORTS FIFA 15 by asking you to vote for your all-time favorite soccer article. The results are in!
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Playboy Interview: David Fincher
“It was offensive to me on a certain level that when Saw and those other movies came out, people said, “Well, torture porn really started with Seven.” Fuck you. There’s enough pervy shit going on in Seven that I don’t have to get on my high horse to defend its artistic sensibilities.”
Exodus
Elon Musk’s dreams of colonizing Mars.
Anne Helen Petersen writes for BuzzFeed. Her book Scandals of Classic Hollywood is out this week.
"I was obsessed with Entertainment Weekly from the very first issue and I obsessively catalogued it. I made a database on my Apple IIe where I put in the title of the magazine and the number and whether it was a little 'e' or a big 'E' on the cover and the different topics and then I gave it a grade. You know how in Entertainment Weekly they give everything a grade, so I’d be like 'Oscar’s Issue: A minus.' But I learned how to obsessively track Hollywood industry even though I grew up in a very small town in northern Idaho."
Thanks to TinyLetter, Bonobos, and EA SPORTS FIFA 15 for sponsoring this week's episode.
Louisiana Is Disappearing Into the Sea
“Since 1932, the Gulf of Mexico has swallowed 2,300 square miles of the state’s wetlands, an area larger than Delaware. If no action is taken, the missing Delaware will become a missing Connecticut, and then a missing Vermont.”
The Ballad of Buddy
Buddy Cianci, former Providence mayor and convicted felon, is running for the city’s top office. Again.
A Hundred Women
Why a decades-long string of murders near the Mexican border has gone unsolved.
The Self-Made Man
The story of an American myth.
The Leftovers
Paula Deen’s martyrdom industrial complex. On a cruise ship.
Zimmerman Family Values
Their paranoid existence more than two years after George killed Trayvon Martin.
A Mobster, a Murder, and a Moll with a Secret
Nearly 70 years after Bugsy Siegel’s unsolved murder in Beverly Hills, a family finally comes forward: they know who did it.
The Man Who Fought the Synanon Cult and Won
Under the cover of curing addicts, they beat and brainwashed their charges in basements across California. When a cult deprogrammer crossed them, he found a rattlesnake in his mailbox.
Trial by Twitter
The murder of a West Virginia teenager by her two best friends.
Before the Law
Sixteen-year-old Kalief Browder was accused of taking a backpack. He spent the next three years on Rikers Island, without trial.
This Week's Most Popular Articles in the Longform App
The last breaths of pop music, memories of having a stroke and the war over Airbnb in New York — the most-read articles this week in the new Longform App, available free for iPhone and iPad.
The Final Walk-Off
An essay on Derek Jeter.
It’s Silly to Be Frightened of Being Dead
The author, age 96, on the end.
To Cook or Not to Cook? The Answer Is Obvious.
An argument for ordering in, among other things.
Scientist and Mob Idol
A profile of Albert Einstein as he confronted his newfound fame.
The Human Factor
On the crash of Air France Flight 447.
Fiction Pick of the Week: "Reflections on Villaplane"
A French soccer star’s rise and fall from sports to cons to the Nazi Party.
For a daily short story recommendation from our editors, try Longform Fiction or follow @longformfiction on Twitter.
Using So Little
On the importance of skateboarding.
The Woman Who Walked 10,000 Miles (No Exaggeration) in Three Years
Sarah Marquis’s very long hike.
