On dirty laundry and the meaning of freedom.

On a group of women whose lives were forever altered by the Leif Garrett episode of Behind the Music.

An interview with novelist Marilynne Robinson, conducted by a graduating student.

How A+E’s CEO is navigating the new TV environment with hit shows like “Duck Dynasty.”

On life with amnesia and the role that music plays in memory.

A profile of Cormac McCarthy–on the verge of fame.

Undercover in an industrial slaughterhouse.

Previously: Conover discusses this story on the Longform Podcast.

A profile of Claire Danes.

The legacy of a phantom bluesman.

“Now Pynchon hides in plain sight, on the Upper West Side, with a family and a history of contradictions: a child of the postwar Establishment determined to reject it; a postmodernist master who’s called himself a ‘classicist’; a workaholic stoner; a polymath who revels in dirty puns; a literary outsider who’s married to a literary agent; a scourge of capitalism who sent his son to private school and lives in a $1.7 million prewar classic six.”

Three days on road with former chef and current rap eccentric Action Bronson.

Fast cars and bad decisions in a race through Southern Europe known as the “Gumball 3000.”

A melancholic Billy Ray Cyrus on the trauma of being the father of a famous 18-year-old girl, his friendship with Kurt Cobain, and his favorite mullet nicknames (Kentucky Waterfall and Missouri Compromise).

A eulogy of sorts for the King.

Renting in one of the most expensive American cities.

A profile of the actor.

A profile of the saxophone player at 82.

How MSG became “perhaps the most infamously misunderstood and maligned three letters in the history of food.”

The story of a machine.

The turf wars at New York City’s hip hop station, Hot 97.

A profile of documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras, who last January received “a curious e-mail from an anonymous stranger requesting her public encryption key.”

The drunken genius of Harry Nilsson, the American Beatle.

An interview with Murphy at the apex of his power, just before the release of Harlem Nights.

The life, work, and early death of writer Shirley Jackson.

“Let me say that again: Hedy Lamarr, arguably the most glamorous star of the pre-war period, also helped invent your cell phone and WiFi connection.”