“How much money do you make? And do you shave your pubic hair?”

On director Steve McQueen and his film 12 Years a Slave.

The incentives for and ethics of writing other people’s books.

On the sudden death of an up-and-coming rapper.

In 1902, a poet attempts to stage the world’s first “perfume concert.”

A profile of the world’s top photo retoucher, who typically can retouch over 100 images in a single issue of Vogue.

An investigation into how Hollywood abuses animals.

On new art boom and one of its most powerful players, David Zwirner.

After circulating Lolita in secret amongst a small circle of New Yorker editors and publishers, Vladamir Nabokov finally placed it at Olympia Press. Three weeks before publication, a slumping and broke Dorothy Parker appeared in The New Yorker with a story entitled “Lolita” about a teenage bride, her jealous mother, and a much older man.

How a comedy writer making $300,000 a year ended up homeless.

The inside story of Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks.

On the assassination of a half-Palestinian, half-Jewish cultural revolutionary.

INTERVIEWER: I imagine that people try to set you up as some sort of guru, whether political or metaphysical.

LESSING: I think people are always looking for gurus. It’s the easiest thing in the world to become a guru. It’s quite terrifying.

On art and dead bodies.

On the Kunsthal heist and the murky economics of making money from stolen paintings.

On the importance of the jingle business.

Behind the scenes with Maury.

“The only problem is he was so successful that Hollywood decided to devour his Xanadu, with premium vodka parties and assistants scouring the Park City Albertsons for Fiji water. ‘It makes me fucking nuts,’ says Redford.”

On interviewing and napping beside Norman Mailer.

An interview with painter Chris Martin.

What the popular game says about our subconscious.

A profile of the comedian.

The search for the hottest chili.

The rock critic confronts his favorite musician.

A profile of Brian Eno as he transitioned into installation art.