Mr. Hannah Montana’s Achy Broken Heart
A melancholic Billy Ray Cyrus on the trauma of being the father of a famous 18-year-old girl, his friendship with Kurt Cobain, and his favorite mullet nicknames (Kentucky Waterfall and Missouri Compromise).
The NYPD Division of Un-American Activities
How New York City built its own CIA.
The Match Maker
On September 20, 1973, 50 million Americans watched Bobby Riggs lose to Billie Jean King in a tennis match dubbed “The Battle of the Sexes.” This spring, a man named Hal Shaw came forward with a secret he’d held for 40 years: Riggs, in debt to the mafia, had lost on purpose.
The Truth About Marissa Mayer: An Unauthorized Biography
A 22,000-word profile of the Yahoo CEO.
The Suit in the Newsroom
A profile of New York Times Company CEO Mark Thompson.
How Microsoft Lost Its Mojo
The story of a lead squandered.
Sleeping Together
A visit to Tokyo’s first co-sleeping cafe, where one can pay a set fee to sleep next to a woman in 20 minute increments, though spooning, being patted on the head, and a change of pajamas are extra.
Where Were You When Elvis Died?
A eulogy of sorts for the King.
My Name Is Not Robert
A case of mistaken identity and the incarceration of an innocent man.
Sympathy for the Landlord
Renting in one of the most expensive American cities.
D'Andre Brown's Basketball Dream
On not making the NBA.
The Line of Fire
How volunteer firefighters responded to a lethal West, Texas explosion.
Mandy Patinkin: 'I Behaved Abominably'
A profile of the actor.
Michael Hastings' Dangerous Mind: Journalistic Star Was Loved, Feared and Haunted
The life and death of a reporter.
How The Light Gets Out
“In the computer age, it is not hard to imagine how a computing machine might construct, store and spit out the information that ‘I am alive, I am a person, I have memories, the wind is cold, the grass is green,’ and so on. But how does a brain become aware of those propositions? “
Joshuah Bearman is the co-founder of Epic Magazine and a freelance writer. His latest story is "Coronado High."
"People who know me well will realize that parts of this story are actually about me. … It's about loss of innocence and getting to a certain point in your life where you realize the excitement of youth is over. Life at a certain point gets complicated and there are consequences and things get hard. These are people who dealt with those consequences in a way that I never did — they had to go to prison or destroy their friends lives — but that's what I liked about this story. It's a true crime story, but it became universal when I realized that there is this emotional experience that these characters go through that anybody can relate to."
Thanks to TinyLetter and Igloo Software for sponsoring this week's episode.
The Killing Machines
A briefing on drone warfare.
Mailman at 72 With America’s Longest Route
On the job with America’s senior citizen letter carriers.
The Cruelest Sport
“Professional boxing is the only major American sport whose primary, and often murderous, energies are not coyly deflected by such artifacts as balls and pucks.”
Sonny Rollins, the Colossus
A profile of the saxophone player at 82.
After Bloomberg
What kind of New York is Mayor Mike leaving behind?
Medora Goes To The Game
A father and his 9-year-old daughter watch Harvard play Yale in football.
Last Song for Migrating Birds
On the slaughter of songbirds migrating across the Mediterranean.
The Notorious MSG's Unlikely Formula for Success
How MSG became “perhaps the most infamously misunderstood and maligned three letters in the history of food.”
The Mercenary
Roy Petersen was blind in one eye, had two replaced hips, and was twice divorced. His job was to solve a gold mine robbery case in the Peruvian Andes. He would need some help.
