The Biology of B-Movie Monsters

Source: Fathom Archive
Published: May 11, 2009
Length: 32 minutes (8,026 words)

How David Beats Goliath

When underdogs break the rules.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: May 11, 2009
Length: 29 minutes (7,367 words)

After the Great Recession: Interview with President Obama

This was our third interview about the economy, the first two occurring during last year’s campaign. And while the setting was decidedly more formal this time — the Oval Office — the interview felt as conversational as those earlier ones. We sat at the far end of the office from his desk and spoke for 50 minutes.

Published: Apr 28, 2009
Length: 24 minutes (6,190 words)

The Jessica Question

Jessica Simpson is at the crossroads of Obscurity and Re-invention. What brought the 28-year-old pop star, now also the controversial girlfriend of Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, to this moment?

Author: Rich Cohen
Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Jun 28, 2009
Length: 20 minutes (5,085 words)

The DNA Debacle: How the Federal Government Botched the DNA Backlog Crisis

Source: Pro Publica
Published: May 5, 2009
Length: 17 minutes (4,400 words)

Stop worrying about your children!

Kids today are just as safe as they were in the ’70s, says “Free-Range Kids” author Lenore Skenazy, and what’s really distressing is an alarmist culture that refuses to let them grow up.

Source: Salon
Published: May 4, 2009
Length: 13 minutes (3,444 words)

How Kevin Bacon sparked a new branch of science

The theory that everyone in the world is six friendships away from everyone else is regarded by many as a myth. So what happens when the theory is put to the test?

Source: BBC
Published: May 5, 2009
Length: 7 minutes (1,898 words)

How the OAuth Security Battle Was Won, Open Web Style

Source: ReadWriteWeb
Published: Apr 25, 2009
Length: 8 minutes (2,193 words)

Growing Up Buckley

The nurse buzzed me into the Critical Care Unit. The chic and stunning Mrs. William F. Buckley — the society columnists used to call her that — lay on her bed, shrunken, open-eyed, unseeing, a thick plastic respirator tube protruding from her mouth, making a loud, rhythmic bellows noise as it pumped and withdrew air from her lungs. I’d driven eight hours through a storm to get here and knew pretty much what to expect, but I lost it and began to sob. The nurse kindly left.

Published: Apr 22, 2009
Length: 31 minutes (7,914 words)

Inside the NFL Draft with an Agent Not Named Jerry Maguire

Football dealmaker David Canter on what he knows before the mock drafts, how he pits teams against each other, and what kind of a stomach you need to make it in the sports-agent game

Source: Esquire
Published: Apr 23, 2009
Length: 5 minutes (1,423 words)