David Grann is a staff writer at The New Yorker.
"You don't always know all the answers. I think that's what kinda makes life interesting. The thing that makes these stories real, while they are in some ways unfathomable, [is that] there's an uneasiness of certitude. Because there are things that are not always known, there are elements of doubt, and that can be very haunting ... In some of the stories, you get as close as you can to all you know—and then there are parts that elude you."
On a former Louisiana preacher who converted to Atheism.
The rock critic’s lasting impact.
A previously unpublished, 20,000-word interview with Eno.
A meditation on the “out-and-out confrontational confidence of the totally ignorant.”
Ervil LeBaron, the Mormon Manson, terrorized Mexico’s Mormon compounds, ordering the killing of enemies and relatives alike. Even after he was captured, followers continued treat the “Hit List” he left behind as the word of God.
“I am talking here about a time when I began to doubt the premises of all the stories I had ever told myself, a common condition but one I found troubling.”
The secretive financial behemoth that is the American Catholic Church.
The day Hurricane Irene nearly drowned Prattsville, New York.
A profile of Chan ‘Cat Power’ Marshall adrift in Miami.
The uncomfortable, and increasingly vital, relationship between Barack Obama and billionaire donors.
A profile of Salvatore Strazzullo, who represents celebrities, whether major or minor, who get themselves in trouble in Manhattan after dark.
On living in Saudi Arabia.
“What follows is my attempt, based on a few increasingly hostile exchanges and a close reading of his terrible book, not only to examine why Mariotti is currently jobless but to explain why, in a sane world, he should forever remain that way. I present this as a cautionary tale for other sportswriters, both young and old.”
A profile of Chelsea Clinton.
A new chapter for Ohio State’s football coach.
A psychological, historical and neurological look at Alcoholics Anonymous.
The history and reception of progressive rock.
An essay on Alcor – “the Arizona cryonics company that has put the body of Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Ted Williams in cryogenic suspension, in the hope he may one day rise again” – and the desire to live forever.
Life as an elite Scrabble player at the “first-ever four-day, 54-player, 24-match $100,000 Scrabble Superstars Showdown.”
“The squirrels may take my tomatoes and spit them back, but they would not go unanswered. The time had come to close the circle of life.”
The story of John Laroche, which led to Orleans’ The Orchid Thief, and tangentially, the film Adaptation.
How the Oglala Lakota healed from a massacre.
Janet Reitman is a Rolling Stone contributing editor and author of Inside Scientology.
"I'm very open about the fact that I know nothing ... Every reporter should admit you know nothing, and when you do, there will be people that will take pity on you, and try to teach you. And then you have to be shrewd enough to know who's spinning you, and who is being genuine."
Autobiographical cartoonists on truth and lies.
