The Accidental Slumlord

At the height of the housing boom, I became a long-distance landlord. Then my tenants came home to roost.

Source: Newsweek
Published: Jun 12, 2009
Length: 11 minutes (2,830 words)

Dispatch from Tehran: Blood and defiance in Azadi Square

On Monday, huge crowds braved violence to protest the Iranian election results.

Author: Anonymous
Source: Salon
Published: Jun 16, 2009
Length: 8 minutes (2,091 words)

Laid Off, Maybe, but Still Ready to Rumble

Downturn Inspires Some Men to Don Spandex and a Larger-Than-Life Persona

Source: Washington Post
Published: Jun 16, 2009
Length: 5 minutes (1,332 words)

Don’t Call What Happened in Iran Last Week an Election

It was a crudely stage-managed insult to everyone involved.

Source: Slate
Published: Jun 14, 2009
Length: 4 minutes (1,063 words)

Daddy Dearest

Is Kim Jong Il’s son any less insane?

Published: Jun 12, 2009
Length: 30 minutes (7,595 words)

The Secret History

Can Leon Panetta move the C.I.A. forward without confronting its past?

Author: Jane Mayer
Source: The New Yorker
Published: Jun 22, 2009
Length: 30 minutes (7,595 words)

Getting Up to Speed

This is a story not about Amtrak but about trains, and the problem with any story about trains in America is that you often find yourself thinking about Amtrak, and you often find yourself thinking about how nice it would be if you weren’t thinking about Amtrak. This is especially true when you’re actually riding on Amtrak, which happened to be the case one morning in March when I boarded the Pacific Surfliner in downtown Los Angeles for a 500-mile trip, mostly up the coast, to Sacramento.

Published: Jun 10, 2009
Length: 26 minutes (6,546 words)

Interview with Artist Gary Panter, set designer for Pee-Wee’s Playhouse

Source: The Believer
Published: Jun 28, 2009
Length: 19 minutes (4,855 words)

The Capitalist Manifesto: Greed Is Good

Source: Newsweek
Published: Jun 13, 2009
Length: 14 minutes (3,704 words)

One Girl’s Hope, a Nation’s Dilemma

A Cambridge firm’s drug worked wonders, but was hugely costly – more than Costa Rica thought it could spend on one child among so many

Source: Boston Globe
Published: Jun 14, 2009
Length: 12 minutes (3,234 words)