Heart of the Emerald Triangle
Life on a weed farm in Humboldt County.
The Believer
Confidentially Yours
A history of the celebrity profile.
The Training Bras of Literature
Sweet Valley High and the enduring economic power of blond twins.
Remote Control
Tonya Harding, Nancy Kerrigan and the “why me?” misheard around the world.
A Trip to Japan in Sixteen Minutes
In 1902, a poet attempts to stage the world’s first “perfume concert.”
"If an Elephant Can Make a Good Painting, Then Who Needs an MFA From Yale?
An interview with painter Chris Martin.
Wanted: Macho Men with Mustaches
On the origins of The Village People.
Michael Light in Conversation with Lawrence Weschler
How to photograph Los Angeles from a helicopter.
Trasmissions from Camp Trans
The author visits Camp Trans, an annual protest organized after the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival evicted a transsexual woman.
November 24, 1963
On the death of a brother.
Interview: Renata Adler
“I never attacked anyone weak. Only bullies, secure in their courts, bureacracies, fifedoms.”
Pitch Battles
Conspiracy theories, utopian fantasies, and cult involvement surrounding the international standard of musical tuning.
Reincarnation in Exile
The challenges of growing up in the modern world as the reincarnation of a famous Tibetan lama.
Toastmaster
Adventures in public speaking.
But Never a Lovely So Real
The life and work of Nelson Algren.
EST, Werner Erhard, And the Corporatization of Self-Help
How Human Potential Movement workshops permeated our lives and our businesses.
Interview: Nick Offerman
A conversation with Offerman, who plays Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation.
Eddie Is Gone
On surf legend Eddie Aikau and the complicated history of Hawaii.
"You Have to Talk About Salt"
An interview with Pulitzer-winning food critic Jonathan Gold.
Beat Boutique
On the surprising radicalism of library music – “music that has been composed and recorded for commercial purposes.”
What… the… Fuck.
An interview with Marc Maron.
A Dog Named Humphrey
The author recounts playing herself – best-selling author Sloane Crosley – on an episode of “Gossip Girl.”
Colossal in Scale, Appalling in Complexity
On Norman Bel Geddes, pioneer of miniatures and maker of the “most iconic World’s Fair exhibit of all time.”
Absent Things as if They Are Present
A history of erasure as literature.
Atomic Bread Baking at Home
The history of “‘50s-era market-tested USDA White Pan Loaf No. 1.”
