Madness in Morocco: The Road to Ishtar

It was a high-stakes gamble, sending three of Hollywood’s biggest, most uncompromising talents—Warren Beatty, Elaine May, and Dustin Hoffman—to make a movie in the middle of the Sahara.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Feb 1, 2010
Length: 34 minutes (8,541 words)

Nil by mouth

Published: Jan 6, 2010
Length: 7 minutes (1,855 words)

Boogie Nights

It became known, and ultimately reviled, as Disco. Interviews with Donna Summer, Ian Schrager, Gloria Gaynor, and others who helped create the strobe-lit, sex-driven, amyl-nitrite-fueled scene, the phenomena of Studio 54 and Saturday Night Fever, and the songs that reverberated into a new millennium.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Feb 1, 2010
Length: 24 minutes (6,245 words)

Hang ’em High

Never, it seems, have punters been more valuable to NFL teams. So who are these guys—and why hasn’t a single punter been voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame?

Published: Dec 21, 2009
Length: 20 minutes (5,198 words)

Interview: Berkeley Breathed

I drew what seemed amusing to me. That was the extent of my thoughtfulness when it came to designing the Bloom County world. As with most cartoonists, a comic strip is an unsavory peek into the head of its maker. Having said that, I have no inkling as to the inside of Jim Davis’s head from a reading of Garfield. It was the classic corporate invention—drawn by a staff—which made it fun to skewer. It was there to sell shit.

Source: Vice Magazine
Published: Jan 7, 2010
Length: 9 minutes (2,482 words)

Obama’s War Over Terror

Barack Obama was inaugurated as the first president to take office in the Age of Terrorism. He inherited two struggles — one with Al Qaeda and its ideological allies, and another that divides his own country over issues like torture, prosecutions, security and what it means to be an American. The first has proved to be complicated and daunting. The second makes the first look easy.

Published: Jan 4, 2010
Length: 6 minutes (1,626 words)

The Shot Heard ’Round the Clubs

The mystery of Finn M. W. Caspersen still haunts the high-Wasp enclaves of Florida’s Jupiter Island, the Rhode Island shore town of Westerly, and New Jersey horse country: What led the well-connected, immensely wealthy 67-year-old philanthropist to such a shocking act? The author searches out the shadows in an outwardly impeccable life.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Jan 1, 2010
Length: 21 minutes (5,261 words)

What Makes a Great Teacher?

For more than a decade, one organization has been tracking hundreds of thousands of kids, and looking at why some teachers can move them three grade levels ahead in a year and others can’t. Now, as the Obama administration offers states more than $4 billion to identify and cultivate effective teachers, Teach for America is ready to release its data.

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Feb 1, 2010
Length: 8 minutes (2,159 words)

Dave Eggers on his favorite things about newspapers

Source: Onion A.V. Club
Published: Jan 5, 2010
Length: 5 minutes (1,351 words)

Number Nine

Sonia Sotomayor’s high-profile début.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Jan 11, 2010
Length: 49 minutes (12,475 words)