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A Battle of Two Great Smiles
How Michael Jordan beat Magic Johnson and won his first NBA championship.
Reprints Sponsored
How Michael Jordan beat Magic Johnson and won his first NBA championship.
David Halberstam Playing for Keeps Nov 1999 15min Permalink
The legacy of the Scopes trial on one Tennesse town.
Rachael Maddux Oxford American May 2014 10min Permalink
A profile of Sophia Amoruso, the 30-year-old CEO of Nasty Gal and author of #GIRLBOSS.
Molly Young New York May 2014 15min Permalink
Tereza Sedgwick trains to become a nurse aid, the fastest-growing job in America. It pays just better than minimum wage and has one of the highest burnout rates of any career.
Eli Saslow Washington Post May 2014 Permalink
Privacy, memory, data and advertising—how the modern web has become a Ponzi scheme and how we might be able to fix it.
Maciej Cegłowski Idle Words May 2014 Permalink
The catfishing of Chris Andersen.
Flinder Boyd Newsweek May 2014 Permalink
For many, the answer from the state is “yes.” An investigation into what legally determines a person’s ability to parent.
Seth Freed Wessler ProPublica May 2014 20min Permalink
The author of I Know What You Did Last Summer investigates her own daughter’s unsolved murder.
Tim Stelloh Buzzfeed May 2014 35min Permalink
Marion and Larry Pollard live in the suburbs. They have eight grandkids and a terrier named Bella. They can also expel demons and save your soul.
Julie Lyons D Magazine May 2014 20min Permalink
Thoughts on necks.
Karl Ove Knausgaard The Paris Review May 2014 25min Permalink
The director of a covert organization arrives for his first day at work.
Jeff Vandermeer io9 May 2014 25min Permalink
The Srebrenica massacre, almost 20 years later.
Scott Anderson New York Times Magazine May 2014 30min Permalink
“On a small scale, Titanic Thompson is an American legend. I say on a small scale, because an overpowering majority of the public has never heard of him. That is the way Titanic likes it. He is a professional gambler. He has sometimes been called the gambler’s gambler.”
John Lardner True Apr 1951 25min Permalink
How the actress masterfully shapes her public image.
Anne Helen Petersen Buzzfeed May 2014 25min Permalink
On Erzsébet Báthory, the first—and still most prolific—female serial killer.
Tori Telfer The Hairpin May 2014 20min Permalink
A profile of Tiny Lister, the silver screen’s half-blind villain.
Thomas Golianopoulos Grantland May 2014 15min Permalink
An eyewitness account of Robert Kennedy’s assassination.
Pete Hamill Village Voice Jun 1968 15min Permalink
Inmates work for hours each day and yet have no labor rights.
Beth Schwartzapfel The American Prospect May 2014 25min Permalink
A father reflects on his son’s search for employment.
Michael Bérubé Al Jazeera May 2014 Permalink
The story of a high school basketball star’s sexual abuse conviction and its aftermath, told from all sides.
Gary Smith Sports Illustrated Jun 1996 Permalink
Gary Smith, a four-time National Magazine Award winner, retired last month after 32 years at Sports Illustrated.
"We were on the Santa Monica Freeway, Ali's driving 70 miles an hour and his eyes are drifting asleep—the medication for Parkinson's would do that to him. I'm thinking, 'Oh, crap.' We're weaving between lanes, cars are honking, and I'm wondering in the passenger seat, 'Should I grab the wheel from the greatest champ of all-time?' The writer in me wants to let it go, let the crash happen just so I get a scene for the story. But the human in me was just getting scared as hell."
Thanks to TinyLetter and EA SPORTS FIFA WORLD CUP for sponsoring this week's episode.
May 2014 Permalink
An essay on life as “the first person whose global humiliation was driven by the Internet.”
Monica Lewinsky Vanity Fair Jun 2014 20min Permalink
“But to grow up costs the earth, the earth. It means you take responsibility for the time you take up, for the space you occupy. It’s serious business. And you find out what it costs us to love and to lose, to dare and to fail. And maybe even more, to succeed. What it costs, in truth. Not superficial costs—anybody can have that—I mean in truth. That’s what I write. What it really is like. I’m just telling a very simple story.”
George Plimpton, Maya Angelou The Paris Review Sep 1990 25min Permalink
A profile of the internet’s poet, Patricia Lockwood.
Making vision boards with rap’s strangest fallen star.
Zach Baron GQ May 2014 15min Permalink