Into the Valley of Death
The 20 soldiers in Second Platoon try in vain to hold down a strategic outpost in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, “among the deadliest pieces of terrain in the world for U.S. forces.”
The 20 soldiers in Second Platoon try in vain to hold down a strategic outpost in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, “among the deadliest pieces of terrain in the world for U.S. forces.”
Sebastian Junger Vanity Fair Jan 2008 25min Permalink
A profile of the famed photographer.
Charlie LeDuff Vanity Fair Apr 2008 25min Permalink
When they met, he was 45 and she was 17. In her 14 years as his mistress, she appeared in countless paintings, including Guernica.
John Richardson Vanity Fair May 2011 15min Permalink
Who would poison the vines of La Romanée-Conti, the tiny, centuries-old vineyard that produces what most agree is Burgundy’s finest, rarest, and most expensive wine?
Maximillian Potter Vanity Fair May 2011 25min Permalink
On Elizabeth Taylor at the height of her fame.
Dominick Dunne Vanity Fair Mar 2007 Permalink
An artifact from the era when MySpace was king.
James Verini Vanity Fair Mar 2006 20min Permalink
The surreal afterlife of the once-ascendant Dubai, where “the legacy of oil has made everything worthless.”
A. A. Gill Vanity Fair Apr 2011 Permalink
“If 4chan sounds trivial, that’s because it is. The site certainly doesn’t make much money…In fact, you could say that 4chan has cornered the market on the trivial on the Internet, which is no small feat (the trivial usually spreads by accident on the Web, according to no logic).”
Vanessa Grigoriadis Vanity Fair Apr 2011 Permalink
A profile of Jack Dorsey, co-founder (and displaced CEO) of Twitter. Dorsey’s latest venture, a mobile credit card system called Square that only officially launched in February 2011, already processes more than a million transactions per day.
David Kirkpatrick Vanity Fair Apr 2011 Permalink
“While its source remains something of a mystery, Stuxnet is the new face of 21st-century warfare: invisible, anonymous, and devastating.”
Michael Joseph Gross Vanity Fair Apr 2011 30min Permalink
Five years ago, Mel Gibson was one of Hollywood’s few genuine family-men and a leading box office attraction; inside his wild descent from star to pariah.
Peter Biskind Vanity Fair Mar 2011 30min Permalink
How the Weinstein Brothers barked their way into an empire and then lost it.
Peter Biskind Vanity Fair Feb 2004 50min Permalink
How a nation went bankrupt. “Ireland’s regress is especially unsettling because of the questions it raises about Ireland’s former progress: even now no one is quite sure why the Irish suddenly did so well for themselves in the first place.”
Michael Lewis Vanity Fair Mar 2011 Permalink
In 1998, at age 45, Ken Bradshaw surfed the tallest wave in recorded history.
William Langewiesche Vanity Fair Feb 2011 35min Permalink
J.D. Salinger on the beaches on D-Day, marching through concentration camps, and in liberated Paris.
Kenneth Slawenski Vanity Fair Feb 2011 15min Permalink
A quasi-oral history of the party that was JFK’s 1961 inauguration.
Todd S. Purdum Vanity Fair Feb 2011 25min Permalink
The enigmatic life and death of Bruno Zehnder, who obsessively photographed penguins in the ice fields outside of a Russian base in Antarctica.
Ned Zeman Vanity Fair Jan 2000 45min Permalink
Guz Dominguez says he was trying to help baseball players from Cuba; the U.S. government says he was smuggling athletes. The truth is more complicated.
Michael Lewis Vanity Fair Jul 2008 1h5min Permalink
The backstory on Julian Assange’s relationship with the Guardian and the New York Times.
Sarah Ellison Vanity Fair Feb 2011 30min Permalink
On the (disputed) origins of the Huffington Post.
William D. Cohan Vanity Fair Feb 2011 Permalink
Inside Office 39, a state-run counterfeiting operation designed to keep Kim Jong-il flush.
David Rose Vanity Fair Aug 2009 20min Permalink
He called himself “TheNoseDoctor” and performed sinus surgeries, many of them unnecessary, at a maniacal clip. When the whole thing fell apart, he left behind his yacht and family, and disappeared into the Alps.
Buzz Bissinger Vanity Fair Jan 2011 35min Permalink
In 1975, Jackie O., widow to a president and tycoon, decided to become a literary editor.
Greg Lawrence Vanity Fair Jan 2011 30min Permalink
On the gap between how the world sees Goldman Sachs and how Goldman Sachs sees itself.
Bethany McLean Vanity Fair Jan 2010 35min Permalink
Steven Seagal spent a few years in Japan and returned to open a dojo in L.A.. Jules Nasso was the wiseguy producer behind all of Seagal’s hits. When it all fell apart, Seagal reputedly offered money for a contract killing, and Nasso may have been caught on tape arranging to extort Seagal through the Gambino Family.
Ned Zeman Vanity Fair Oct 2002 Permalink