Ethics of Admiration: Arendt, McCarthy, Hardwick, Sontag
A literary memoir.
Daniel Radcliffe’s Next Trick Is to Make Harry Potter Disappear
The world’s most famous child star grows up.
Once Upon a Time in the Middle East
On driving (and walking) in the Middle East – from Syria to Lebanon, across Saudi Arabia to Dammam, in a taxi through war-torn Beirut.
Malcolm Gladwell is a staff writer at The New Yorker. His latest book is David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants.
"The categories are in motion. You turn into a Goliath, then you topple because of your bigness. You fall to the bottom again. And Davids, after a while, are no longer Davids. Facebook is no longer an underdog—it's now everything it once despised. I am everything I once despised. When I was 25, I used to write these incredibly snotty, hostile articles attacking big-name, nonfiction journalists. Now I read them and I'm like, 'Oh my God, they're doing a me on me!'"
Thanks to TinyLetter and EA SPORTS FIFA 14 for sponsoring this week's episode.
Show Notes
- @gladwell
- gladwell.com
- Gladwell on Longform
- Gladwell's New Yorker archive
- [6:30] "How David Beats Goliath" (New Yorker • May 2009)
- [29:00] The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game
(Michael Lewis • 2006)
- [32:15] Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession
(Janet Malcolm • 1981)
- [32:15] The Journalist and the Murderer
(Janet Malcolm • 1990)
- [43:00] Tyler Cowen's Marginal Revolution
- [56:30] "The Plauge of the Year" (New Republic • Jul 1995)
Determining the Fate of Frozen Embryos: Do You Know Where Your Children Are?
On a parent’s relationship with unused embryos.
The Milkman Cometh
How one man helped get Vitamin D into milk, fortified food, and spurred our obsession with supplements.
Treasury Island
A young wonk is handed the budget of the world’s smallest republic.
Thoreau 2.0
On simplicity, self-reliance and refusing to cooperate with “the apparatus of secrecy” that surrounds online surveillance.
The Longform Guide to Diaries
Nina Simone, a child of Scientology, and a murderous college student—a collection of articles based on private journals.</p>
The Elvis Impersonator, the Karate Instructor, a Fridge Full of Severed Heads, and the Plot 2 Kill the President
The story of a rivalry gone awry.
"It Was the Biggest Game of Chicken I’ve Ever Seen."
A post-acquisition profile of Tumblr’s David Karp.
How BlackBerry Blew It
Ego, hubris, and the failure to adapt.
The Spy Who Loved Us
On Pham Xuan An, Time’s Saigon correspondent during the Vietnam War, who led a double life as an intelligence agent for Ho Chi Minh.
Risk and Romance Among NBA Groupies: An Embed’s Report
Sex in the NBA in the wake of Magic Johnson’s HIV announcement.
Poison Tree
An open letter on Grand Theft Auto 5 and aging out of the Rockstar Games franchise.
Surviving Westgate
An inside account of the Nairobi mall attack.
Sponsor: The EA SPORTS FIFA 14 Guide to Soccer Legends
Our sponsor this week is the brand-new EA SPORTS FIFA 14, the latest installment of a game that has been killing productivity at Longform HQ for years now. FIFA is, without question, our absolute favorite way to waste time. We would be playing it right now if we weren't writing this.</p>
To honor this week's release—you can pick up your copy on Amazon—here's a collection of great soccer writing from our archive.</i>
Friends Without Benefits
What the rapidly changing world of teenage hook-up culture means for young women.
Can a Gay, Catholic Leftist Actually Squelch Corruption in Sicily?
Rosario Crocetta is a reform-minded leader in a highly corrupt place that hates change. That’s only one of the reasons his life is in danger.
Our French Connection
What American towns named Paris can tell us about the French.
Mystery Man
On Ron Latimer, the strange, elusive publisher of great poets, including Wallace Stevens.
The Spoil of Mariners
The Arctic, sailors and scurvy.
The True Story of the Great Marijuana Crash of 2011
The rise and fall of Colorado’s newly-legal cash crop.
Confessions of Pop's Wildest Child
A few days in the life of Miley Cyrus.
Trail of Guilt
How the author, following up on a rumor, helped reignite the dormant investigation into the murder of Martha Moxley, a teenager who had been murdered nearly 25 years before in Greenwich, Connecticut.
