Just Kids
On the tangled early careers of Jonathan Franzen, David Foster Wallace, Mary Karr and Jeffrey Eugenides.
On the tangled early careers of Jonathan Franzen, David Foster Wallace, Mary Karr and Jeffrey Eugenides.
Evan Hughes New York Oct 2011 15min Permalink
Retracing the early economic steps of the Obama administration.
Ezra Klein Washington Post Oct 2011 25min Permalink
On the lifestyle of a fugitive retiree, and how it came to an end.
Shelley Murphy The Boston Globe Oct 2011 25min Permalink
On the life and afterlife of Che Guevara.
Christopher Hitchens New York Review of Books Jul 1997 25min Permalink
Edward Stourton The Financial Times Oct 2011 10min Permalink
On the minds of teenagers.
David Dobbs National Geographic Oct 2011 15min Permalink
On the backyard wrestling clubs of South Florida.
Bob Norman New Times Broward-Palm Beach Apr 2001 15min Permalink
Love advice from a beloved aunt.
I try to call my Great Aunt Doris every day. She's ninety-years old and lives alone. I love her desperately and as she gets older, especially of late as she becomes more feeble, my love seems to be picking up velocity, overwhelming me almost, tinged as it is with panic -- I'm so afraid of losing her.
Jonathan Ames Mr. Beller's Neighborhood Oct 2002 10min Permalink
The controversy over a widely-used prostate cancer screening test.
Fourteen other tornadoes hit Georgia on April 27 and 28. This was not the record — that would be twenty, during Tropical Storm Alberto in 1994. But it was one of the worst twenty-four-hour periods in the history of the state. Tornadoes hit Trenton, Cherokee Valley, south of LaGrange, and Covington; killed seven people in a neighborhood in Catoosa County, swept through Ringgold, and killed two more — a disabled man and his caregiver — in a double-wide trailer on the far end of Spalding County. Those tornadoes got all the attention. The Vaughn tornado didn’t even warrant an article in a major newspaper. No one talked about Vaughn. The only way for a person to really find out about it was to drive past.
Justin Heckert Atlanta Magazine Oct 2011 Permalink
The author gets a job writing about amusement parks.
Kevin Moffett The Believer Nov 2004 30min Permalink
On the phenomenal, disturbing influence of Ayn Rand.
Jonathan Chait The New Republic Sep 2009 30min Permalink
Jonathan Safran Foer It’s been an awfully long time since we last spoke. Four years? And it’s been a long time since the reading world last got new material from you. About seven years? What’s been going on? Jeffrey Eugenides I’ve been writing a book.
The monologist as a young man.
Nell Casey New York Times Magazine Oct 2011 35min Permalink
Mr. Jobs's pursuit for aesthetic beauty sometimes bordered on the extreme. George Crow, an Apple engineer in the 1980s and again from 1998 to 2005, recalls how Mr. Jobs wanted to make even the inside of computers beautiful. On the original Macintosh PC, Mr. Crow says Mr. Jobs wanted the internal wiring to be in the colors of Apple's early rainbow logo. Mr. Crow says he eventually convinced Mr. Jobs it was an unnecessary expense.
Geoffrey Fowler, Yukari Iwatani Kane The Wall Street Journal Oct 2011 15min Permalink
Once the pirates were in control of the Lynn Rival, they ransacked it, flinging open cupboards, eating all of the Chandlers’ cookies and stealing their money, watches, rings, electronics, their satellite phone and clothes. There were now 10 men; two more pirates had scampered onboard to join the others. After showering and draining the Chandlers’ entire supply of fresh water, they started trying on outfits. A broad-shouldered buccaneer named Buggas, who appeared to be the boss, was especially fond of their waterproof trousers, parading up and down the deck wearing them, while some of the other pirates strutted around in Rachel’s brightly colored pants and blouses.
The misconception? You do nice things for the people you like and bad things to the people you hate.
The truth? You grow to like people for whom you do nice things and hate people you harm.
David McRaney You're Not So Smart Oct 2011 20min Permalink
Retracing Hunter S. Thompson’s famous steps, 40 years later.
Zach Baron The Daily Oct 2011 55min Permalink
When an exclusive private school discovered a teacher was sleeping with his 17-year old student, administrators did their best to make the problem vanish.
Claire St. Amant D Magazine Oct 2011 15min Permalink
How amateur tinkerers electronically contacted Russia during the Cold War:
The object of Joel's attention at this moment, however, as it is much of the time, is his four-pound, briefcase-size Radio Shack Tandy Model 100 portable computer. "I bought this machine for $399. For $1.82 a minute - $1.82! - I can send a telex message to Moscow. This technology is going to revolutionize human communications! Think what it will mean when you can get thousands of Americans and Soviets on the same computer network. Once scientists in both countries begin talking to each other on these machines they won't be able to stop. And we'll be taking a running leap over the governments on both sides.
Adam Hochschild Mother Jones Jun 1986 35min Permalink
On the rise and fall of India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Vinod K. Jose The Caravan Oct 2011 50min Permalink
On Sam Jain and Daniel Sundin, the fugitive kings of scareware.
Benjamin Wallace Wired Oct 2011 15min Permalink
Reagan’s would-be assassin, 30 years later.
Harry Jaffe Washingtonian Sep 2011 25min Permalink
On the politics of North Carolina.
Jane Mayer New Yorker Oct 2011 40min Permalink
On the writer and his impact on his subjects.
Jessica Pressler New York Oct 2011 15min Permalink