Mattathias Schwartz has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and Harper's.
"I figure it's like digging through a wall with a spoon: if you spend enough time at it eventually you get to the other side."
Thanks to TinyLetter and Audible for sponsoring this week's episode.
At the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway in Omaha.
The story of a very bad basketball team.
Bonobos are celebrated as peace-loving, matriarchal, and sexually liberated. Are they?
“Unfortunately, after having spent 33 hours over the course of a year interviewing Mr. Rumsfeld, I fear I know less about the origins of the Iraq war than when I started.”
A profile of Pamela Anderson.
Over the last several years, millions of dollars worth of antique rhino horns have been stolen form collections around the world. The only thing more unusual than the crimes is the theory about who is responsible: A handful of families from rural Ireland known as the Rathkeale Rovers.
On the life and death of Avonte Oquendo, a 14-year-old autistic boy who disappeared in October after walking out of his New York City school.
Previously: Robert Kolker on the Longform Podcast.
A mid-career profile of Johnny Cash.
How Brad Katsuyama, a trader at the sleepy Royal Bank of Canada, discovered that the stock market was rigged and assembled a team to change it.
Adapted from Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt.
Leland Yee was a career San Francisco politician known for championing open government and gun control. For the last few years, he was also the main target of an elaborate undercover investigation, during which he traded political favors for cash, tried to sell $2 million worth of weapons to a medical marijuana kingpin and worked closely with well-known Chinatown gangster named Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow.
Watching a brain surgeon at work.
A post-mortem.
Dick Cheney and the political history of warrantless surveillance.
On the experience of having a stroke.
The murder of an Iranian band in Brooklyn by one of their own.
Previously: Nancy Jo Sales on the Longform Podcast.
Race and major league pitcher Chris Archer.
Collections Sponsored
A collection of our favorite writing by Karen Russell, including short stories and her lone foray into journalism, "The Blind Faith of the One-Eyed Matador," a Longform Best of 2012 pick. Russelll's new novella, </em>Sleep Donation, is out now.
The fight to grant asylum to the translators who worked—and sometimes fought—alongside U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In the summer of 1982, three Waco teenagers were savagely murdered for no apparent reason. Four men were ultimately charged with the crime. One was executed, two others were given life sentences, and a fourth was sent to death row only to be released after six years. They all may have been innocent.
James Reston’s problematic proximity to the powerful.
A local reporter set out to profile the celebrated writer. He ended up lampooned in The New Yorker.
Excerpted from Updike.
The downfall of Hugo Schwyzer, feminist.
Feature Writing, Reporting, Essays and Criticism, Public Interest — a full list of the articles nominated today.
Previously: Our picks for the best of 2013.
The Bitcoin ghostwriter who wasn’t.
