The Last of the Iron Lungs
A profile of three of the last polio sufferers in the US using an iron lung. The piece examines what life is like spent in one of these contraptions, used in a medical context for nearly 100 years.
How Tom Wolfe Became Tom Wolfe
The celebrated writer Tom Wolfe died on Monday. Michael Lewis’s 2015 profile went deep into his biography and his writing to tell his story.
Trying to Remember J.F.K.
An elegaic personal essay reflecting on President Kennedy’s legacy in his centenary year.
Deliverance From 27,000 Feet
The story of the mission to recover the bodies of three climbers on Mount Everest, two of whom were abandoned high up the mountain.
Take Nothing, Leave Nothing
The author tells the story of how he came to receive a lifetime ban from the remote island of Tristan da Cunha, and reflects on the nature of tourism.
Is This Story Real?
This piece examines a memoir written by a former waiter at Paris’ celebrated Brasserie Lipp. In the manuscript, this unassuming man describes the horror of the Holocaust and deeds of extraordinary derring-do including infiltrating the SS, joining resistance groups, and hunting Nazis after the war whilst serving as a member of the French Foreign Legion. It’s far from clear whether large parts of the story are true or not, but perhaps that’s not the point.
Lost At Sea
The story of a couple who were on an American commercial ship sunk by a German U-Boat early in the war.
Peter Popoff, the Born-Again Scoundrel
A look at the empire of a successfully returned 1980s televangelist, who gives supporters his “miracle spring water”.
How one man died so a whale might live
The story of Joe Howlett, a disentangler who worked helping whales in distress. It is also a story about the killing of whales, and their conservation.