In this special episode with Stephen Rodrick, contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine and contributing editor at Men's Journal, Rodrick discusses his recent story "Here Is What Happens When You Cast Lindsay Lohan in Your Movie."

"Publicists don't want to give you access because they're afraid of what you're going to see. But if you spend enough time with anybody, short of Mussolini or Ghengis Khan, they're going to humanize themselves. Because they're human beings, like you are. And they have whatever demented battles they're fighting, their version of crazy, but if you get to spend some time with them as flesh and blood, they're going to come across as flesh and blood in the story."

Sponsor: Aeon Magazine

Our sponsor again this week is Aeon, a new digital magazine of ideas and culture. Aeon publishes an original essay every weekday, several of which have been picked for Longform. Here is a trio of recent favorites:

Luddite Love
Claire L Evans on why old relationships should fade like a photograph, not haunt your social networks forever.

Earth's Holy Fool?
Michael Ruse on the Gaia paradox — some scientists hate it, the public loves it, and they may both be right.

World Enough
John Quiggin on the emerging opportunity to simultaneously end poverty and protect the environment.

Read those stories and more at aeonmagazine.com.

The Longform Guide to Internet Hoaxes

Manti Te’o’s Dead Girlfriend, the Most Heartbreaking and Inspirational Story of the College Football Season, Is a Hoax

The story was told by Sports Illustrated, CBS News, and countless others: linbeacker Manti Te’o, Heisman trophy candidate and the face of Notre Dame football, was playing brilliantly despite the tragic loss of his girlfriend to leukemia early in the season. The reporters missed one key element of Te’o’s story, however: the girl hadn’t died. She couldn’t have. She didn’t exist.

Starlee Kine is a contributor to This American Life and the New York Times Magazine.

"There's a fearlessness I had when I was younger that I don't have now ... It threw me into a crisis, the Internet in general. You're more cautious about what you kind of have out there. There's that, that I just don't want people to know every single thing anymore, but there's [also] an inner fear that did not exist before, an inner censoring that was not there."

Thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode!