Our Longreads Member Pick: The Prophet, by Luke Dittrich and Esquire
For this week’s Member Pick, we’re excited to share “The Prophet,” the much-talked-about new story from Luke Dittrich and Esquire magazine investigating the claims made by Dr. Eben Alexander in the best-selling book Proof of Heaven, about Alexander’s own near-death experience.
Dittrich, a contributing editor at Esquire since 2008, has been featured on Longreads many times in the past and his work has appeared in anthologies including The Best American Crime Writing, The Best American Travel Writing, and The Best American Science and Nature Writing, and his article about a group of strangers who sheltered together during a devastating tornado won the 2012 National Magazine Award for Feature Writing. He is currently writing a book for Random House about his neurosurgeon grandfather’s most famous patient, Henry Molaison, an amnesiac from whom medical science learned most of what it knows about how memory works.
The Man Who Would Fall to Earth
From 120,000 feet, Felix Baumgartner will step from a sealed capsule and drop 23 miles. In 35 seconds, he will become the first human to free-fall through the sound barrier. What happens after that, nobody knows…
Biography of Usain Bolt, Mutant
In just two years, he has demolished the 100-meter dash world records with times that are superhuman — literally thirty years ahead of what they historically should be. So what if the greatest athlete alive decided to actually get serious?
Four Days on the Border
An American kid hired as an assassin for a Mexican drug cartel sits in a safe house in Laredo and brags about his hits and the one he’s planning next — only this time Texas police are watching.
