Atomic City
The personal story behind America’s little known nuclear incident on home soil.
The Plot Against America
An essay on Philip Roth’s 2004 counterfactual novel, which imagines that famed flying ace and isolationist Charles Lindbergh won the Republican nomination for the 1940 US Presidential Election, and proceeded to embark on a campaign of persecution.
The Most Eligible Bachelor on the Planet
Bill Clinton and James Patterson’s thriller The President is Missing gets the London Review of Books write up it deserves.
Porambo
The remarkable life story of Ron Porambo, a crusading investigative journalist, whose achievements in reporting riots in 1960s Newark were eventually obscured by his own criminal exploits.
Harvey: Fifty-one Inches
The story of five different Houston residents as they faced Hurricane Harvey.
Tesla, software and disruption
Benedict Evans is a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, a leading venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley. This piece is a deep dive into the automotive industry, comparing the incumbents (Ford, GM, et al) with the disruptor (Tesla), and searching for insights in other industries that have already seen disruption (mobile phones, desktop and laptop computers).
Can Jim Mattis Hold the Line in Trump’s “War Cabinet”?
A profile of James Mattis, the US Defence Secretary, and the last remaining core member of the so-called “Committee to save America”, after the recent dismissals of H.R McMaster and Rex Tillerson.
“Oh My God, This Is So F***ed Up”: Inside Silicon Valley’s Secretive, Orgiastic Dark Side
A piece examining the sex party culture in Silicon Valley.
How Rudy Giuliani Turned Into Trump’s Clown
Jeffrey Toobin’s profile of Rudy Giuliani is full of political insight, but also contains a healthy dose of revealing anecdotes – such as those about life at Giuliani’s favourite cigar club, complete with Alec Baldwin’s description of “Republican Manhattan”.
David Foster Wallace on John McCain: “The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys and the Shrub”
David Foster Wallace spent a week with the late Senator John McCain during his 2000 Republican presidential primary battle against George W. Bush for this perceptive and nuanced profile.