Generation XX
How Kaws short-circuited the art world.
The Mueller Report
Adapted by the author of “Black Hawk Down.”
How the Sausage Is Made
The search for the perfect hot dog—by way of haute cuisine.
Toni Morrison, The Art of Fiction No. 134
An interview with the writer and Nobel laureate.
The Highway that Was Supposed to Save Syracuse
Can tearing down I-81 fix the sins of the past?
The NBA's Secret Addiction
(It’s PB&J.)
Billie Eilish and the Triumph of the Weird
A profile of the 17-year-old star.
The Absurdities of 'Franchise Fatigue' & 'Sequelitis'
What’s actually happening at the box office.
What Bullets Do to Bodies
“The gun debate would change in an instant if Americans witnessed the horrors that trauma surgeons confront everyday.”
Athleisure, Barre and Kale: the Tyranny of the Ideal Woman
How we became suckers for the hard labor of self-optimization.
How to Save a Loggerhead
What does it take to save a 300-pound loggerhead with a horrible injury? Inside the yearlong journey of recovery.
How Taffy Brodesser-Akner Thrives on Stress
Everyone wants women to be mindful, calm, and deliberate. But sometimes a little chaos gets things done.
44 Years. 41 Allegations. Now the Past Is Catching Up.
For more than 40 years, a former Olympian allegedly has been molesting boys and young men. Now, they’re speaking out.
America’s DIY Phone Farmers
How to pay for your food, diapers, and beers through ad fraud.
Fiction Pick of the Week: "Who Are You"
Sexual and personal growth intertwine.
There Are Places You Cannot Go
A friendship born out of the ruins of a nation, a dangerous journey home, and a 40-year search for the truth.
One Day, One City, No Relief
24 hours inside San Francisco’s homelessness crisis.
Gone
Decades of greed, neglect, corruption, and bad politics led to last year’s Paradise fire, the worst in California history.
Baxter Holmes is a senior writer for ESPN. He won the James Beard Award for his 2017 article, “The NBA's Secret Addiction.”
“If there’s anything I’m really fighting for it’s people’s memory. I love the notion of trying to write a story that sticks with people. And that requires really compelling characters. It requires in-depth reporting — you have to take people on a journey. It needs to be so rich and something they didn’t know. I look for a story that I can tell well enough that it will hold up, that it will earn someone’s memory.”
Thanks to Mailchimp, Substack, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
A Doctor's Deception
For 30 years, Paul Shuen was one of the city’s most respected obstetricians. Then his nurses noticed something unusual about the way he delivered babies.
Awkward Cause
An academic in Calgary lives an extreme low-carbon lifestyle. But he really doesn’t want to make you feel weird about it.
The Long Con: How The Manziels Conquered America
The family history behind college football’s most talked-about player.
No One Is Safe
How Saudi Arabia makes dissidents disappear.
Devil's Advocate
On lawyer Alan Dershowitz.
Murder in the Moroccan Mountains
Death, ISIS, and tourism in the Atlas Mountains.
