From Gitmo to an American Supermax, The Horrors of Solitary Confinement
On the psychological damage punitive isolation inflicts upon Guantánamo and American prisoners alike.
Vanity Fair
A Matter of Life and Death
With a brutal cancer prognosis, a woman learns to live on borrowed time.
The Chinese Century
Without fanfare—indeed, with some misgivings about its new status—China has just overtaken the United States as the world’s largest economy.
Salvage Beast
When massive ships sink, burn, fall apart or get stuck, their owners call Nick Sloane. His job: figure out how to save as much as he can.
The War of the Words
A history of the war between Amazon and the book industry.
New York’s Most Sensational Jewel Heist
Fifty years later, the men who stole priceless gems from the Museum of Natural History recall the crime.
The Stradivarius Affair
The bungled theft of a $6 million violin.
The Target
A profile of Malala Yousafzai, the young activist from Pakistan who was just awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Human Factor
On the crash of Air France Flight 447.
Always Leave Them Laughing
Sam Simon made a fortune from The Simpsons. Now, diagnosed with terminal cancer, he is racing to spend it.
Showdown at the Four Seasons
The battle over a New York Picasso.
Gone Like the Wind
After one of the most decisive wins in Kentucky Derby history, Barbaro broke his leg at the Preakness, ending a promising career and beginning a herculean effort to save his life.
Evaporated
On the trail of Austin Tice and the late James Foley, freelance journalists who were kidnapped in Syria in 2012.
Designed for Destruction
On the platonic but volatile relationship between fashion designer Alexander McQueen, who committed suicide in 2010 and professional muse Isabella Blow, who committed suicide in 2007.
To Have and Have Not
Lauren Bacall at 86.
Her House of Cards
How a 26-year-old cocktail waitress ended up running a private weekly poker game for some of Hollywood’s highest rollers.
Prisoner of Denver
“The case of Lisl Auman, who first wrote me from prison three years ago, is so rotten and wrong and shameful that I feel dirty just for knowing about it, and so should you.”
Dr. Nicholas and Mr. Hyde
The fall of billionaire Henry Nicholas, co-founder and CEO of microchip-maker Broadcom, who lost his job and his marriage amidst allegations of drug use, cooking the books, and building a secret party lair beneath the house he shared with family.
The Book on Publishing
The decade-long journey of a novel–Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding–through the unpredictable world of book publishing.
Shame and Survival
An essay on life as “the first person whose global humiliation was driven by the Internet.”
Robert Capa’s Longest Day
How the famed war photographer covered D-Day.
Burning Out
The last days of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
“U Want Me 2 Kill Him?”
A teenager orchestrates his own attempted murder via an Internet chatroom.
To Live and Die in America
The murder of an Iranian band in Brooklyn by one of their own.
Previously: Nancy Jo Sales on the Longform Podcast.
The Chaos Company
Embedded with G4S, the world’s largest private army.
