The Longform Guide to Sleep
Great dreams, terrible dreams, no dreams at all—a collection of stories about slumber, at Slate.
Monopoly Is Theft
The surprising anti-monopolist origins of the world’s most popular board game.
The Two Rogers
Reflections on Mr. Angell, Mr. Kahn and Dad.
Spain's Robin Hood
Working within Andalusia’s impoverished farming communities, a ragtag pair of longtime union leaders have been leading raids on local supermarkets.
The Kindness of Beasts
On the moral behavior of animals.
General Failure
The U.S. military’s leadership problem.
Life on Matinicus Island
How modernity – and an eruption of violence – changed “the most remote inhabited island on the Atlantic seaboard.”
My Multiday Massage-a-Thon
A non-erotic journey.
He Came from Outer Space
Barry Zito, profiled.
The Broke Broker: He’s Got Keys to the Best Apartments, But Lacks One of His Own
Bruce Cawsey Waite has no home, no office, and wears a dead man’s suit.
'Perplexed ... Perplexed': On Mob Justice in Nigeria
“When I’m in Nigeria, I find myself looking at the passive, placid faces of the people standing at the bus stops. They are tired after a day’s work, and thinking perhaps of the long commute back home, or of what to make for dinner. I wonder to myself how these people, who surely love life, who surely love their own families, their own children, could be ready in an instant to exact a fatal violence on strangers.”
Adrian Chen is a staff writer at Gawker and editor at The New Inquiry.
"I've never written a magazine feature. [My writing is] similar, in that I try to bring in the bigger issues, and not just, you know, be funny or tell a sensational story. But I think it's also kind of rough and sketchy in the way that blog posts are. Longform blog writing is like, I don't spend a long time editing or looking it over. It's like, just type as fast as you can and try to cram all of your research in, and then it goes up."
Thanks to TinyLetter for sponsoring this week's episode!
The Island Where People Forget to Die
Why do Ikarians live so long—and remain mentally sharp until the end?
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Sponsor: Zinio
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This week, Zinio recommends “In a Dangerous Place,” an amazing article from Elephant about the trials and tribulations of acclaimed artist Marcus Harvey.
Writers in Hollywood
On the novelist’s experience in movie-making.
Nineteen Seventy Three
In the 1970s, Chile was on the verge of developing sophisticated technology to monitor its economy. Then America intervened.
The Smartest Man in America
Profiles of people with genius-level IQs.
Paradise With An Asterisk
“From all appearances, this place is still an earthly paradise. There is just one problem, though you could stare at this palm grove for a lifetime and never see it. The soil under our feet, whitish gray in color with flecks of coral, contains a radioactive isotope called cesium 137.”
For President Obama, a Complex Calculus of Race and Politics
“His seeming ease belies the anxiety and emotion that advisers say he brings to his historic position: pride in what he has accomplished, determination to acquit himself well and intense frustration.”
The Glory Days of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee
Life at Marvel Comics in the mid-1960s.
An excerpt from Marvel Comics: The Untold Story.
A Night to Forget
A tragic car crash, its lone survivor, and his reeling town.
Free to Be
Forty years after its release, the story of “Free to Be… You and Me.”
Where Will The Next Pandemic Come From? And How Can We Stop It?
On the origins of outbreaks.
What Might Have Been
A profile of George McGovern.
Opening Night
In the slums adjacent to Mumbai’s airport.
