The Aspiring Novelist Who Became Obama’s Foreign-Policy Guru
In the basement of the White House, in an office with no windows, an MFA grad named Ben Rhodes is telling the story of America’s foreign policy.
Showing 25 articles matching iraq podcast.
In the basement of the White House, in an office with no windows, an MFA grad named Ben Rhodes is telling the story of America’s foreign policy.
David Samuels New York Times Magazine May 2016 30min Permalink
Hervé Falciani, a computer engineer working at HSBC, stole the bank’s list of secret accounts. But was he out to expose tax cheats or get rich himself? Perhaps both.
Patrick Radden Keefe New Yorker May 2016 40min Permalink
The International Criminal Court embodied the hope of bringing warlords and demagogues to justice. Then Luis Moreno-Ocampo took on the heir to Kenya’s most powerful political dynasty.
James Verini The New York Times Jun 2016 25min Permalink
A profile of Norman Lear, the producer behind All in the Family and The Jeffersons, who is still making TV at age 94.
Michael Paterniti GQ May 2017 15min Permalink
Jerome Jacobson and his network of mobsters, psychics, strip club owners, and drug traffickers won almost every prize for 12 years, until the FBI launched Operation ‘Final Answer.’
Jeff Maysh Daily Beast Jul 2018 35min Permalink
Tom Bissell was an acclaimed young writer when he started playing Grand Theft Auto. For the last three years he has been sleep deprived, cocaine fueled, and barely able to write a word—and he has no regrets.
Tom Bissell The Guardian Mar 2010 20min Permalink
On the start of the high school football season in Odessa, Texas. An adaptation published alongside the release of Bissinger’s 1990 book of the same name, which led to the movie and the show.
Buzz Bissinger Sports Illustrated Sep 1990 25min Permalink
The agonies of being overweight—or running a diet company—in a culture that likes to pretend it only cares about health, not size.
Taffy Brodesser-Akner New York Times Magazine Aug 2017 30min Permalink
At the end, Theranos was overrun by a dog defecating in the boardroom, nearly a dozen law firms on retainer, and a C.E.O. grinning through her teeth about an implausible turnaround.
Nick Bilton Vanity Fair Feb 2019 15min Permalink
In 2009, Condé Nast allowed this story to appear in print but refused to publish it online or distribute it in Russia for fear of retribution. The story, which details the intrigue behind the Moscow apartment bombings that allowed Vladimir Putin’s rapid ascension to power, is reprinted on Longform courtesy of the author.
Scott Anderson GQ Sep 2009 35min Permalink
A yearlong investigation by BuzzFeed News, based on leaked recordings, internal documents, and dozens of interviews with fans and insiders, reveals how Robbins has berated abuse victims and subjected his followers to unorthodox and potentially dangerous techniques. And former female fans and staffers have accused him of inappropriate sexual advances.
Jane Bradley, Katie J.M. Baker Buzzfeed May 2019 Permalink
Andy Ward, this week’s Longform Podcast guest, was an editor at GQ and Esquire for fourteen years, working with George Saunders, David Sedaris, Jeanne Marie Laskas and many more along the way. Here are his favorite articles from that era:
A field study, in these Hard Times, of the Homeless (as observed in the H Street Encampment, Fresno, California). Being an examination of who they are, how they think, and what they do.
George Saunders GQ Sep 2009 50min
As a young soldier in Vietnam, Cecil Ison saw something, something so horrific that he buried the memory of it for thirty years and swore he’d never allow it to surface again. Then, on March 20, 2003—the day after we started bombing Iraq—the past leapt up and grabbed him.
Kathy Dobie GQ Dec 2007 40min
It started with a candle in an abandoned warehouse. It ended with temperatures above 3,000 degrees and the men of the Worcester Fire department in a fight for their lives.
Sean Flynn Esquire Jul 2000 1h
Specialist Sean O’Shea guarded the most high-profile prisoner in U.S. history.
Lisa DePaulo GQ Jun 2005 25min
Why do we even have coal mines? That question is what led Jeanne Marie Laskas to spend a few weeks 500 feet belowground, getting to know the men behind the invisible economy this country couldn’t live without.
Jeanne Marie Laskas GQ May 2007 40min
Twenty-two years after being sent to prison for an unspeakable crime he did not commit, Calvin Willis walked out a free man, the 138th American exonerated by DNA evidence. He has won his freedom, yes, but how does a falsely accused man reclaim his life?
Andrew Corsello GQ Nov 2007 40min
Once upon a time—1975, actually, in Cambodia—there was a regime so evil that it created an antisociety where torture was currency and music, books, and love were abolished. This regime ruled for four years and murdered nearly 2 million of its citizens, a quarter of the population. The perversion was so extreme, the acts so savage, that three decades later, the country still finds itself reeling.
Michael Paterniti GQ Jul 2007 40min
Sure, we may elect a black president this month. And yeah, Oprah has all kinds of white ladies in her audience. But in real life, it seems the older you get, the less chance you have of being friends with someone who is not in your racial demographic. Can a nice white boy make some black friends if he puts his mind to it? Devin Friedman posts an ad on Craigslist to find out.
Devin Friedman GQ Oct 2010 30min
If you could see into your future, would you want to? If you could know whether you’re going to contract Alzheimer’s, or if you’re likely to battle cancer or die of heart disease, would you want to? Last summer Richard Powers decided he did and became one of nine people on earth to have his entire genome sequenced. Here, a glimpse into his—and your—future.
Richard Powers GQ Oct 2010 40min
Colin Powell and his inner circle on the difficulty of being diplomatic in a “my way or the highway” administration.
Wil S. Hylton GQ Oct 2006 25min
He has fungo bats that are older than Derek Jeter. He has come as close to seeing it all as a baseball man can possibly come. Now he’s in his fifty-third consecutive season in the dugout, and life has never been sweeter.
Scott Raab Esquire Jul 2001 15min
There, in the toilet, was the absolute biggest piece of work I have ever seen.
David Sedaris Esquire Nov 1999
Nov 1999 – Oct 2010 Permalink
On a Saturday evening in February, a 45-year-old Uber driver and father of two named Jason Dalton got into his car, left his home near Kalamazoo, Michigan, and began shooting people. But the strangest, most unfathomable thing about the night that Dalton killed and killed again is what he did in between.
Chris Heath GQ Aug 2016 40min Permalink
He left China at 10 and would never see his mother again. He lived in extreme poverty once he arrived in America. He found his calling in art, became the creative force behind one of Disney’s iconic films, but didn’t get recognition for his brilliance until late in his life, when in addition to painting and illustrating he began to make fantastical kites.
Margalit Fox New York Times Dec 2016 10min Permalink
I used to believe the art world was at war with itself, that money was fighting art and vice versa. But I’ve been living in my own ambivalence about things for a decade now, or more, and I’m starting to think it’s not a war but a new equilibrium state, defined by that ambivalence.
Jerry Saltz Vulture Oct 2018 Permalink
On San Francisco's demise, Thoreau's dirty laundry, and “the mother of all questions” — browse our full archive of articles by Rebecca Solnit.
A conversation between the writers Nadifa Mohamed, who left Hargeisa, and Aleksandar Hemon, who left Bosnia.
Nadifa Mohamed, Aleksandar Hemon Lithub Jul 2019 Permalink
On November 12, 2012, after Belizean police announced that they were seeking him for questioning in connection with the murder of his neighbor, John McAfee began a well-publicized stint on the lam. Six months earlier, the writer had begun an in-depth investigation into McAfee's life. This is the chronicle of that investigation.
Listen to Joshua Davis disucsses this article on the Longform Podcast.
Joshua Davis Wired Dec 2012 35min Permalink
What does it take for heroin to grab hold in the small, remote towns of America? Like any business, it starts with one man and an entrepreneurial dream.
“If you’d like to relive your horrible moment, if you want people to know what actually happened, talk to me. I will tell your story.” — Sean Flynn on the Longform Podcast
Sean Flynn GQ Jan 2015 20min Permalink
On affirmative action at the University of Texas, the essence of privilege, and getting what you deserve.
This job—writing college essays for Abigail Fishers—was the only job I have ever been truly ashamed of, and I am so ashamed of it now that it hurts.
Jia Tolentino Jezebel Jun 2016 15min Permalink
People who are short on relatives can hire a husband, a mother, a grandson. The resulting relationships can be more real than you’d expect.
This article, which was #1 on Longform’s top articles of 2018 list, just won the National Magazine Award for feature writing. Hear Batuman discuss it on the Longform Podcast.
Elif Batuman New Yorker Apr 2018 40min Permalink
The Longform Podcast published its final episode in June 2024. All 585 interviews will remain available on longform.org, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
Longform.org ran from April 2010 to December 2022 and recommended more than 10,000 pieces of nonfiction. The complete archive can be found here.
Thanks for reading and for listening,
Aaron Lammer and Max Linsky, co-founders
“We are invited to listen, but never to truly join the narrative, for to speak as the slave would, to say that we are as happy for the Civil War as most Americans are for the Revolutionary War, is to rupture the narrative.”
Ta-Nehisi Coates The Atlantic Nov 2011 15min Permalink
When James Brown died on Christmas Day 2006, he left behind a fortune worth tens, maybe hundreds, of millions of dollars. The problem is, he also left behind fourteen children, sixteen grandchildren, eight mothers of his children, several mistresses, thirty lawyers, a former manager, an aging dancer, a longtime valet, and a sister who’s really not a sister but calls herself the Godsister of Soul anyway.
Sean Flynn GQ Apr 2009 50min Permalink
"I realized, as I was going through puberty (early), the necessity of shifting my focus from doing things that would impress my parents and teachers to engaging in behavior that would strike my peers as cool. I started saying 'like' constantly. I smoked pot when I was twelve. I dropped acid when I was thirteen. Losing my virginity was the next logical step."
Ariel Levy Guernica Jun 2011 Permalink