The Atul Gawande Archive
The mystery of the itch, the case for focusing on our neediest patients, an investigation of solitary confinement and more—Gawande’s pieces on Longform.
The mystery of the itch, the case for focusing on our neediest patients, an investigation of solitary confinement and more—Gawande’s pieces on Longform.
What the health care industry can learn from how The Cheesecake Factory does business.
Atul Gawande New Yorker Aug 2012 40min Permalink
On Enrique of Malacca, “the closest thing there is to a hero in the story of Ferdinand Magellan’s horribly botched attempt to circumnavigate the world.”
Josh Fruhlinger The Awl Jul 2012 10min Permalink
On distance running and the art of exhaustion.
Malcolm Gladwell New Yorker Jul 2012 15min Permalink
What one woman spends in a year.
Doree Shafrir Bundle Nov 2010 10min Permalink
No, but for security software companies it’s a useful fiction.
Megha Rajagopalan, Peter Maass ProPublica Aug 2012 15min Permalink
In a posthumously published essay, Twain recounts dreams of a long-lost love.
Mark Twain Harper's Dec 1912 Permalink
In the late 90s, an American man adopted a 5-year-old from the Ukraine. A decade later, one of the two would be accused of molesting young boys. The other would be charged with murder.
Chris Vogel Boston Magazine Aug 2012 Permalink
A profile of “not just the toughest but the most corrupt and abusive sheriff in America.”
Joe Hagan Rolling Stone Aug 2012 25min Permalink
How Cosmo, with 64 international editions and a readership that would make it the world’s 16th largest country, conquered the globe.
The underground routes by which drugs enter the U.S. from Mexico, and the officials who’ve found it almost impossible to curb their construction.
Adam Higginbotham Businessweek Aug 2012 15min Permalink
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A look back at the 2008 raid on Warren Jeffs’ polygamous Mormon sect.
Janet Heimlich Texas Observer Aug 2012 35min Permalink
Darren Lumar lived in mansions he didn’t own, ran companies that didn’t make a dime, went to colleges that didn’t exist and slept with “any number of women” despite being married to James Brown’s daughter. When he was murdered, the cops had a problem: too many possible suspects.
Thomas Lake Atlanta Magazine Nov 2009 30min Permalink
Vidal on Midge Decter, homophobia and a proposed alliance between Jews and gays.
Gore Vidal The Nation Nov 1981 Permalink
Welcome to Plasenzuela, whose 500 inhabitants enjoyed no-show jobs, spent millions on phantom projects and defrauded Social Security.
Guillermo Abril El País Jul 2012 10min Permalink
Creators, gatekeepers, and the future of the comedy business.
A transcript of Oswalt’s keynote at last week’s Just For Laughs conference.
Patton Oswalt The Comic's Comic Jul 2012 10min Permalink
The looming collapse of agriculture on the Great Plains.
Wil S. Hylton Harper's Aug 2012 35min Permalink
On the uneasy relationship between magic and medicine.
Daniel Mason Lapham's Quarterly Jul 2012 Permalink
On the legal history of LSD in America and a researcher who never gave up on the drug’s promise.
Tim Doody The Morning News Jul 2012 30min Permalink
INTERVIEWER: You once said the novel is dead. VIDAL: That was a joke.
Gerald Clarke, Gore Vidal The Paris Review Sep 1976 40min Permalink
Adam Wheeler lied on his college application. Lawrence Summers facilitated the destruction of the global economy.
Only one of these Harvard men was given jail time.
Jim Newell The Baffler Jul 2012 15min Permalink
“Transforming into an Administrative Jekyll for a certain amount of time every day limits the amount of time my Creative Hyde can come up with content to market and sell. Luckily, amphetamines have that problem tackled as well: when you’re using them, you don’t have to sleep… at all.”
Trent Wolbe The Verge Jul 2012 15min Permalink
The history of the City of London Corporation, a “prehistoric monster which had mysteriously survived into the modern world.”
Nicholas Shaxson New Statesman Feb 2011 10min Permalink
When U.S. customs law met abstract art in the form of a bird, “shimmering and soaring toward the ceiling while the lawyers debated whether it was an ‘original sculpture’ or a metal ‘article or ware not specially provided for’ under the 1922 Tariff Act.”
Stéphanie Giry Legal Affairs Sep 2002 15min Permalink