Assets of the Ayatollah
The $95 billion empire supporting Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader.
The $95 billion empire supporting Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader.
Steve Stecklow, Babak Dehghanpisheh, Yeganeh Torbati Reuters Nov 2013 50min Permalink
A trip to Hempfest with cannabis breeder DJ Short.
Jason Fagone Grantland Nov 2013 20min Permalink
Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery are the co-editors of Mother Jones.
"We probably pay more attention to our fact-checking and our research than almost everybody in our industry. By the time we publish stuff, we make sure it's unimpeachable because people would like to impeach it."
Thanks to TinyLetter and HostGator for sponsoring this week's episode.
Nov 2013 Permalink
A history of scandal and civil war within the first family of the Unification Church.
Mariah Blake The New Republic Nov 2013 25min Permalink
The scientific pursuit of the afterlife.
Jesse Bering Aeon Nov 2013 15min Permalink
A profile of Perry Fellwock, a.k.a. Winslow Peck, who exposed the NSA in an 1972 article for Ramparts magazine.
Adrian Chen Gawker Nov 2013 35min Permalink
Fifty years ago, 180,000 whales vanished from the ocean. The mystery is not who killed them, but why.
Charles Homans Pacific Standard Nov 2013 20min Permalink
Growing up in a Toronto suburb while a serial rapist is on the loose.
Stacey May Fowles The Walrus Nov 2013 15min Permalink
On Twitter’s pleasures and perils.
Kathryn Schulz New York Nov 2013 10min Permalink
The political liabilities of Barack Obama’s self-possession.
Todd S. Purdum Vanity Fair Nov 2013 10min Permalink
The economy’s impact on a brothel, the real lives of cam girls, and an interview with a john—a collection of articles on the business of sex.</p>
On the importance of the jingle business.
Jessica Hopper Buzzfeed Nov 2013 15min Permalink
How living off food stamps is making South Texans obese but leaving them hungry.
Eli Saslow Washington Post Nov 2013 Permalink
“Before I put down my phone, I took a picture of my son. I worried that if I didn’t I would never believe he had existed.”
Ariel Levy New Yorker Nov 2013 15min Permalink
Behind the scenes with Maury.
Bryan Curtis Grantland Nov 2013 15min Permalink
Returning to Forth Worth after two and a half defection years in the Soviet Union, Lee Harvey Oswald became friends with a Russian emigre family with a son of his age. After Kennedy was shot, they would be called on to translate the Secret Service interrogation of his young Russian wife.
Paul Gregory New York Times Magazine Nov 2013 20min Permalink
The rise and fall of Intrade, the betting market for world events—elections, hurricanes, Academy Awards—and the death of its CEO near the top of Everest.
Graeme Wood Pacific Standard Nov 2013 20min Permalink
An unlikely environmentalist exposes the natural gas industry’s leaky infrastructure.
Phil McKenna Matter Nov 2013 25min Permalink
A visit to Glenn Greenwald’s house in Rio.
Natasha Vargas-Cooper The Advocate Oct 2013 20min Permalink
A profile of former Rutgers basketball coach Mike Rice, who was fired in April after a video of him berating players went viral.
Jonathan Mahler New York Times Magazine Nov 2013 25min Permalink
Bibek Dhong traveled from Nepal to Malaysia to test cameras for the new iPhone 5. When production ended abruptly, he and his coworkers found themselves stranded for two months without money, food or passports.
Cam Simpson Businessweek Nov 2013 15min Permalink
It mostly had to do with Patch, the executive’s hyperlocal and unprofitable baby.
Nicholas Carlson Business Insider Nov 2013 1h45min Permalink
Evan Wright, a two-time National Magazine Award winner, is the author of Generation Kill.
"When people were killed, civilians especially, I realized I was the only person there who would write it down. I was frantic about getting names, and in the book there are a few Arabic names, some of the victims. Not that anyone cares. But I thought, 'At least somewhere there's a record of this.'"
Thanks to this week’s sponsors: TinyLetter and HostGator.
Nov 2013 Permalink
A homegrown boxer sets his sights on the big time.
Brendan O'Connor BKLYNR Nov 2013 15min Permalink
President Bush’s strange friendship with Vladimir Putin.
Peter Baker Foreign Policy Nov 2013 35min Permalink