“Being Justin Bieber means having an endless number of T-shirts to destroy.” A profile of the pop star just after his 18th birthday.

The world of high-end wine gets conned.

With flash, hip-hop echoes rock’s golden age.

When rock was at its peak in 1972, Americans earning the equivalent of $1m a year took just over 1 per cent of national income. In 2010, this group’s share of national income had grown to almost 10 per cent. At the same time, the average tax paid by these top earners almost halved. The rise of Jay-Z’s “new black elite” reflects the growth in numbers of the super-wealthy. But the opulence that he and West flaunt also reflects the growing estrangement of those at the top from the rest.

The making of Thelma & Louise.

How one man made millions with a fancy hamburger.

Inside the Quidditch World Cup.

“There was no Delta blues before there were cheap, readily available steel-string guitars. And those guitars, which transformed American culture, were brought to the boondocks by Sears, Roebuck & Co.”

A profile of Maurice Sendak.

The Beastie Boys on tour in Los Angeles shortly after the release of their debut album, Licensed to Ill.

On “Poor Hartley,” the son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

A free-ranging conversation between music writers Simon Reynolds and Greil Marcus.

On Norman Bel Geddes, pioneer of miniatures and maker of the “most iconic World’s Fair exhibit of all time.”

A profile of the hardworking Samuel L. Jackson, whose movies have grossed more than any actor’s ever.

On Marilyn Monroe and the pains of post-war America.

On the set of Aaron Sorkin’s new HBO show The Newsroom.

How a lonely, self-taught hacker found his way into the private emails of movie stars – and into the underworld of the celebrity-skin business.

The story of a bizarre—and bizarrely effective—smear campaign.

“That learning to cook could lead an American woman to success of any kind would have seemed utterly implausible in 1949; that it is so thoroughly plausible 60 years later owes everything to Julia Child’s legacy.”

A childhood spent with the oboe.

The author of Truly Tasteless Jokes unmasks herself.

At 67, the American Bandstand icon remains “one hard-working mother.”

On the trade school’s business model and its founder, a former movie producer named Jerry Sherlock.

An interview with the experimental filmmaker and Hollywood chronicler Kenneth Anger, 85.

Neal punctuated Jack’s riffing with his “yesses” and “that’s rights,” head bobbing on his neck like a novice prizefighter’s. After four years of New York nihilism and intellection, Neal – wiping Jack’s face with his handkerchief – Neal – who looked so much like Jack himself, an athlete like Jack – celebrated lover of women and sharer of Allen’s passionate dark soul – finally the long-lost brother who said, “Go ahead, everything you do is great” – “a Western kinsmen of the sun” – “a wild yea-saying over-burst of American joy.”

The life and myth of Neal Cassady, Beat companion and muse for Kesey, Wolfe, Kerouac, Ginsberg, The Grateful Dead and more.

The story behind the story that ended Dan Rather’s career.