An Extremely Awkward Encounter with Larry David

Over a bowl of soup with another older Jewish man, the Curb Your Enthusiasm auteur discusses the Seinfeld curse (“so annoying”), acting for Woody Allen (“very daunting”), and hitting his peak (“no one wants to see this old man on TV”).

Author: Scott Raab
Source: Esquire
Published: Jul 28, 2009
Length: 5 minutes (1,411 words)

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.

Source: Esquire
Published: Jun 28, 2009
Length: 48 minutes (12,220 words)

America’s Islam Anxiety in Egypt and Beyond: Exclusive Excerpt

On the eve of President Obama’s speech on the subject of his new book, Engaging the Muslim World, a leading historian and influential blogger offers an in-depth breakdown of Muslim activism and Muslim radicalism.

Author: Juan Cole
Source: Esquire
Published: Jun 28, 2009
Length: 7 minutes (1,882 words)

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3: Tony Scott Likes It Loud, Fast, and Profane

Why remake a bland but beloved thriller? Because movies should at least try to be as dangerous as life.

Source: Esquire
Published: Jun 28, 2009
Length: 11 minutes (2,962 words)

The Road Is the Most Important Movie of the Year

That’s the burden carried by an Aussie’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s beloved novel. Almost no one has seen it. Well, we did.

Source: Esquire
Published: Jun 28, 2009
Length: 23 minutes (5,900 words)

Nate Silver: The End of Car Culture

It’s not just erratic gas prices and a bad economy that’s hurting automakers. It may be that Americans are changing.

Source: Esquire
Published: May 6, 2009
Length: 4 minutes (1,045 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)

Home

In February 2003, after the explosion of the shuttle two American astronauts aboard the International Space Station suddenly found themselves with no ride home. And things got worse from there.

Source: Esquire
Published: Jul 1, 2004
Length: 26 minutes (6,707 words)

Steve Jobs and the Portal to the Invisible

In his controlling hands, technology became both the engine and the emblem of transcendence. But as the iPhone slips from his grasp, Jobs is making his final bid for immortality. “Steve Jobs has become Steve Jobs by doing what nobody else has done before—by treating computers not just as tools but as mirrors, by making technology not just the engine but the emblem of transcendence. One day, however, he will have to do what everybody else has done before, and will wind up demonstrating what it’s like to be mortal, even in the age of the beautiful machine.”

Author: Tom Junod
Source: Esquire
Published: Oct 1, 2008
Length: 26 minutes (6,696 words)

Three by Sedaris

In the early sixties, during what my mother referred to as the “tail end of the Lassie years,” my parents were given two collies they named Rastus and Duchess. We were living in upstate New York, out in the country, and the dogs were free to race through the forest. They napped in meadows and stood knee-deep in frigid streams, costars in their own private dog-food commercial. According to our father, anyone could tell that the two of them were in love.

Source: Esquire
Published: Mar 1, 2000
Length: 33 minutes (8,486 words)