The Desperado
The story of Edward Averill, a blind man with one foot who robbed a bank in Austin, Texas.
Great articles, every Saturday.
The story of Edward Averill, a blind man with one foot who robbed a bank in Austin, Texas.
Ciara O'Rourke The Atavist Magazine Jan 2019 40min Permalink
What happens when an adoption fails?
Rowan Moore Gerety The Atavist Magazine Jan 2019 40min Permalink
On a Missouri farm, two families worked the land side by side, until a murder shattered their American dream.
Sean Patrick Cooper The Atavist Magazine Nov 2018 40min Permalink
A courageous tribe, a colossal foe, and a terrifying ocean voyage.
Doug Bock Clark The Atavist Magazine Oct 2018 30min Permalink
In September 2017, a police officer shot and killed a queer college student in Atlanta. By the end of the year, several of the student’s friends had been arrested, and two were dead. What happened at Georgia Tech?
Hallie Lieberman The Atavist Magazine Aug 2018 55min Permalink
Four days, two murders, and one poplar tree that almost ignited World War III.
Josh Dean The Atavist Magazine Aug 2018 50min Permalink
The inside story of the first homicide in America’s most secure prison.
Chris Outcalt The Atavist Magazine Apr 2018 30min Permalink
How a journalist who wrote a seminal account of police brutality during the 1967 race riots in Newark wound up on the wrong side of the law.
Greg Donahue The Atavist Magazine Mar 2018 1h Permalink
How a group of hippie surfers and a former Spanish teacher built the largest weed-smuggling empire on the West Coast.
Joshuah Bearman The Atavist Magazine Sep 2013 1h35min Permalink
A feat of elegant design wowed elite architects and promised to bring education to poor children in Nigeria. Then it collapsed.
Allyn Gaestel The Atavist Magazine Feb 2018 30min Permalink
An Afghanistan love story.
James Verini The Atavist Magazine Feb 2014 1h Permalink
First came seizures. Then he began forgetting words. By age four he could barely walk. The story of the race to save a child from a genetic death sentence.
Amitha Kalaichandran The Atavist Magazine Dec 2017 35min Permalink
Orange County’s first serial killer in 25 years stalked homeless men.
Leon Krauze The Atavist Magazine Nov 2017 35min Permalink
In 1921, a teenager died alone in Kentucky and was buried without a name. A century later, a team of sleuths set out to find his identity.
Alina Simone The Atavist Magazine Sep 2017 1h Permalink
Bill Brookman has traveled to some of the world’s most dangerous places to disarm militias and negotiate with gangs. Bill Brookman is a clown.
Jessica Hatcher-Moore The Atavist Magazine Sep 2017 50min Permalink
A hundred years ago, in the midst of an American food crisis, two spies who had once sworn to kill each other came together with a plan to feed America: hippo meat.
Jon Mooallem The Atavist Magazine Dec 2013 1h25min Permalink
The fake cops of Santa Monica.
David Mark Simpson The Atavist Magazine Jul 2017 1h5min Permalink
On the eve of the Civil War, a nightmare at sea turned into one of the greatest rescues in maritime history. More than a century later, a rookie treasure hunter went looking for the lost ship—and found a different kind of ruin.
David Wolman The Atavist Magazine Mar 2017 35min Permalink
Half a century ago, an American commando vanished in the jungles of Laos. In 2008, he reappeared in Vietnam, reportedly alive and well. But nothing was what it seemed.
Matthew Shaer The Atavist Magazine Feb 2017 35min Permalink
He was a Baptist who became a Muslim, a Marine who became a bank robber, a criminal who became an informant, and a student who became an imam. But was Marcus Robertson connected to the deadliest mass shooting in American history?
David Gauvey Herbert The Atavist Magazine Dec 2016 1h Permalink
An Italian town plagued by mysterious fires turns to science, the church, and the law in a search for answers.
The Atavist Magazine Nov 2016 45min Permalink
An $140 million blockbuster written and funded by a billionaire, ‘Empires of the Deep’ was supposed to be China’s ‘Avatar,’ featuring mermaids, Greek warriors, pirates, sea monsters, and an even international stars.
Six years after being filmed, the movie has never seen the light of day.
Mitch Moxley The Atavist Magazine May 2016 Permalink
Paul Le Roux could have been Mark Zuckerberg. Instead he became a 21st century John Gotti, running a massive criminal empire from his computer until he became an asset of the United States government.
A 7-part serialized story, written by Longform Podcast co-host Evan Ratliff.
Part 1 of “The Mastermind,” a serialized investigation of Paul Le Roux, who went from brilliant programmer to vicious cartel boss to highly protected U.S. government asset.
Evan Ratliff The Atavist Magazine Mar 2016 Permalink
After his daughter died in a terrorist attack, Stephen Flatow won an unprecedented judgment against her killers. Then he had to figure out how to actually collect.
M.R. O'Conner The Atavist Magazine Jan 2016 50min Permalink