The Split Brain: A Tale of Two Halves
The impact, both on researchers and patients, of a radical treatment.
The impact, both on researchers and patients, of a radical treatment.
David Wolman Nature Mar 2012 15min Permalink
There was torture, starvation, betrayals and executions, but to Shin In Geun, Camp 14—a prison for the political enemies of North Korea—was home. Then one day came the chance to flee.
Blaine Harden The Guardian Mar 2012 Permalink
The rise of anti-anxiety medication.
Lisa Miller New York Mar 2012 20min Permalink
Fact-checking David Sedaris.
Alex Heard The New Republic Mar 2007 15min Permalink
Searching for the reclusive band’s studio in Düsseldorf.
Alexis Petridis The Guardian Jul 2003 10min Permalink
A profile of Red Bull’s Dietrich Mateschitz, who wants to make his drink a lifestyle. Mateschitz’s co-founder, Chaleo Yoovidhya, died March 17.
Duff McDonald Businessweek May 2011 Permalink
A survey of the 20th century’s greatest horror writer’s afterlife of influence.
Matthew Baldwin The Morning News Mar 2012 10min Permalink
After years of avoiding the uncomfortable truths about how his gadgets are made, a Mac fanboy travels to Foxconn to see for himself.
Update 3/16/12: This American Life retracted this story today after it was revealed to have “contained significant fabrications.”
Mike Daisey This American Life Jan 2012 30min Permalink
The long legal saga of Kerry Max Cook, who was convicted of murdering Linda Jo Edwards in 1977 and sent to death row. After three trials, two overturned convictions and a plea deal, Cook is out of prison but still has the crime on his record. He maintains his innocence.
Mark Donald Dallas Observer Jul 1999 1h Permalink
A gay freshman at Rutgers, a spying roommate, and the trial that followed.
Update 3/16/12: The roommate, Dharun Ravi, has been found guilty of hate crimes.
Ian Parker New Yorker Jan 2012 50min Permalink
How Don Johnson won $15 million playing blackjack over a four-month period.
Mark Bowden The Atlantic Apr 2012 15min Permalink
His horror story is emblematic of a bigger problem that lawmakers in Florida and across the nation have only recently begun to recognize: Cops employ confidential informants — sometimes very young ones — to bust criminals. But there's little oversight, and the result of police carelessness can be horrific.
Chuck Strouse The Miami New Times Mar 2012 15min Permalink
The stories of four men who’ve lost their jobs and desperately want new ones.
Ryan D'Agostino Esquire Mar 2012 30min Permalink
A fiction writer buys and loses a house in Oakland.
Aimee Phan Guernica Mar 2012 15min Permalink
Anyone who wants to know what the Occupy Wall Street protests are all about need only look at the way Bank of America does business. It comes down to this: These guys are some of the very biggest assholes on Earth. They lie, cheat and steal as reflexively as addicts, they laugh at people who are suffering and don't have money, they pay themselves huge salaries with money stolen from old people and taxpayers – and on top of it all, they completely suck at banking. And yet the state won't let them go out of business, no matter how much they deserve it, and it won't slap them in jail, no matter what crimes they commit. That makes them not bankers or capitalists, but a class of person that was never supposed to exist in America: royalty.
Matt Taibbi Rolling Stone Mar 2012 30min Permalink
Virginia authorities possess DNA evidence that may exonerate dozens of convicted men. Why won’t the state say who they are?
Dahlia Lithwick Slate Mar 2012 10min Permalink
Love, Margaret Thatcher and a broken penis.
Jeff Winkler The Awl Mar 2012 15min Permalink
The life and times of two professional muggers in 1970’s lower Manhattan:
Hector and Louise usually work whatever neighborhood they’re living in. They knock over every old man on the block, every young man who follows Louise’s swinging hips and pocketbook, and every young girl attracted by Hector’s olive eyes. They rough up all of them, take whatever money is there, and then move on.
David Freeman New York Feb 1970 15min Permalink
The French influence in Africa is on the wane, and the Chinese are coming.
Stephen W. Smith London Review of Books Feb 2010 20min Permalink
How the world’s biggest casino ran out of luck.
Michael Sokolove New York Times Magazine Mar 2012 25min Permalink
Sam Childers, a Pennsylvania-based evangelical preacher, biker, and former drug addict, has devoted his life to catching crazed African warlord Joseph Kony.
Ian Urbina Vanity Fair Apr 2010 25min Permalink
Twenty five years after a shooting left him “100% disabled,” a Baltimore police officer continues to fight for his life.
David Simon The Baltimore Sun Mar 2012 15min Permalink
Stylistically speaking, in terms of clothing, they arrived in shirts and pants and shoes (there’s really no other way to say it). They had haircuts, but it didn’t really look it. While other bands were mumbling or over-enunciating their dreary positions or penny-candy philosophies, Pavement kind of screamed for a generation. But they did it in a way that was so deeply American that it was almost Scandinavian.
Playwright Will Eno profiles the band and their cult as they grow up and prepare for a reunion.
A report from Austin, Texas as it turns into a dot-com hotspot.
Helen Thorpe New York Times Magazine Aug 2000 15min Permalink
The noon chimes in the bell-clock tower rising above him to the building's 307-foot pinnacle sounded: pom-pom-pom-pom . . . 16 notes, high and sweet. Some say the chimes say a poem: "Lord, through this hour "Be Thou my guide, "For in Thy power "I do confide." After the chimes, there is a long pause -- 23 seconds if you hold a wristwatch on it -- time enough for a practiced man to reload three rifles and a shotgun.
“Doc” Quigg’s wire report on the 1966 Texas Tower shooting on the campus of UT-Austin.
H.D. Quigg United Press International Aug 1966 10min Permalink