Misguided Nostalgia for Our Paleo Past
How humans evolve in the modern world.
The Cold Arab Spring
Chasing the embers of hedonism in Morocco and Tunisia, as Salafi mobs and new regimes wash over the brothels, beaches, and nightclubs of what used to be the Arab world’s most liberal cities.
The Winners History of Rock and Roll
As mainstream rock declines and disappears from the radio, an examination of seven bands who were amongst the biggest of their respective eras.
Arianna’s Virtual Candidate
A profile of Michael Huffington.
Freakshow
Welcome to World of Wonder, the Hollywood production company that celebrates “outsiders, 16th-minute celebrities, conspiracy theorists, penis puppeteers, dictators, street hustlers, porn stars, hackers, homicidal club kids, gender deviants, furries, plushies, and Tori Spelling.”
Broken Shield
An investigation into police misconduct and the abuse of the disabled.
Arts Business Politics World Movies & TV
L’Étranger
France, wealth and the saga of tax exile Gérard Depardieu.
Death in Singapore
Authorities say an American electronics engineer committed suicide after working on a project involving a Chinese telecom giant. His family believes he was murdered.
Deep Inside: A Study of 10,000 Porn Stars and Their Careers
Applying big data analysis to Internet Adult Film Database, the IMDB of porn.
It’s 2013, And They’re Burning ‘Witches’
In the highlands of Papua New Guinea, admist a mining boom, the public torture and killing of women accused of sorcery has returned.
Infectious: Tom Dooley
On the 1866 murder of Laura Foster and the subsequent hanging of Tom Dula.
Broken Promise
On the meeting of shaggy-haired American ping pong ace Glenn Cowan and Chinese master Zhuang Zedong (who died this week), and how their fleeting friendship thawed relations between the twon nations during the U.S. team’s historic 1971 tour of China.
Cinema Tarantino
The making of Pulp Fiction.
The Plastinarium of Dr. von Hagens
The man behind the Body Worlds exhibit faces his own death.
Playboy Interview: Michael Jordan
A conversation with a 29-year-old approaching his apex.
Anatomy of a Heroin Ring
How a Chicago drug organization did business.
His Saving Grace
How Curtis Duffy overcame his parents’ murder-suicide to become one of the nation’s great chefs.
How Crazy Is Too Crazy to Be Executed?
Andre Thomas cut out his children’s hearts and removed his own eyes. Texas considers him sane.
A Chinese Hacker's Identity Unmasked
Who is ‘Tawnya Grilth’?
Can the Republicans Be Saved From Obsolescence?
The GOP’s younger generation confronts its future.
CIA Operatives, Barrels of Whiskey, and a Biker Named Thor
The story of Thor Holm Hansen—”Norwegian country singer, a former Outlaws motorcycle chieftain, and an ‘ambassador at large’ to a rebel Haitian government”—who claims to be back in Florida to locate his missing daughter.
Joel Lovell, deputy editor of The New York Times Magazine, interviewed live at the University of Pittsburgh.
"I think if you can make a writer feel like it's okay to not know what they're doing—they don't really know exactly what their story is, they're a little lost in their material—that's a fine place to be. If you can sort of talk it through, if you can minimize their anxiety a little bit, then I think you've done most of your job. After that it's just looking at the words and just figuring out which ones work."
Thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode!
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Welcome to the Malware-Industrial Complex
How governments and private companies have engaged in digital arms trading by building a global black market for ‘zero day’ hacks.
Susan Miller Rising
A profile of the “smart person’s” astrologer, and the people who believe in horopscopes.
When A 10-Year-Old Kills His Nazi Father, Who's To Blame?
On the case of young Joseph Hall, who was convicted last month of murdering his dad.
