Mainline Street

How heroin grabbed hold in the small town of Laramie, Wyoming, thanks to a drug dealer named Ory Joe Johnson, who started selling after getting addicted to prescription pain medication.

Author: Sean Flynn
Source: GQ
Published: Jan 7, 2015
Length: 22 minutes (5,523 words)

‘Chris Harrison Is One of the Smoothest Motherf—ers I’ve Ever Met’

A very funny, thoughtful profile of The Bachelor‘s longtime host, now divorced and pondering the meaning of relationships.

Source: GQ
Published: Jan 3, 2015
Length: 18 minutes (4,591 words)

The Dark Side of the Moon

What life is like today for Buzz Aldrin, a war hero, MIT rocket scientist, and the second man to walk on the moon.

Source: GQ
Published: Dec 26, 2014
Length: 26 minutes (6,593 words)

Dave Chappelle Is Back (This Time We’re 100% Sure It’s Maybe Totally for Real)

An interview with the comedian, who is back in the business after a long sabbatical. Things discussed: Kanye’s surprise performance at one of Chappelle’s shows, Rob Ford, mean critics, what it’d be like to hang out with Chappelle at a BBQ.

Source: GQ
Published: Nov 18, 2014
Length: 23 minutes (5,828 words)

The Great Paper Caper

Wells Tower talks to Frank Bourassa, the “most prolific counterfeiter in American history” who reproduced more than $200 million in nearly flawless fake twenty dollar bills.

Source: GQ
Published: Oct 28, 2014
Length: 21 minutes (5,491 words)

Zimmerman Family Values

Amanda Robb meets George Zimmerman’s family and learns about their paranoia and get-rich-quick schemes.

Source: GQ
Published: Sep 30, 2014
Length: 19 minutes (4,923 words)

The Man Who Hid from the World for Nearly 30 Years

Michael Finkel tracks down the man known as the North Pond Hermit: Christopher Thomas Knight lived in a secret camp in the woods of Central Maine, stealing food and supplies from nearby homes. “I never felt lonely. To put it romantically: I was completely free.”

Source: GQ
Published: Aug 20, 2014
Length: 30 minutes (7,500 words)

The New Face of Richard Norris

Richard Norris became disfigured after he accidentally shot himself in the face when he was 22. He successfully received a full face transplant with the help of Eduardo Rodriguez, a Baltimore reconstructive facial surgeon, but life after the surgery has brought up some unexpected burdens.

Source: GQ
Published: Jul 28, 2014
Length: 34 minutes (8,518 words)

Kanye West: A Brand-New Ye

“I just want to do crazy, colorful shit like that that has more nudity.” An interview with Kanye West.

Author: Zach Baron
Source: GQ
Published: Jul 21, 2014
Length: 22 minutes (5,680 words)

Who Wants to Shoot an Elephant?

The writer joins a Texas couple on an elephant hunt in Botswana and questions whether a regulated hunting industry could help the elephant population in the country:

“If he charges, I’m gonna shoot him,” Robyn says. The entourage begins a dainty heel-to-toe march into the spiky undergrowth. As it turns out, it is not one elephant but two. One is the big, old, shootable bull. The other is a younger male. Elephants never stop growing, a meliorative aspect of which (elephant-hunt-misgivings-wise) is that the mongo bulls that hunters most want to shoot also happen to be the oldest animals, usually within five or so years of mandatory retirement, when elephants lose their last set of molars and starve to death.

For the record, this detail does not soothe me as the guns make their way toward the elephants under the tree. I have not yet figured out how to dislike elephants enough to want to see one shot. In private treason against my hosts, I am thinking, Not now, not now. Let it please not get shot today.

Source: GQ
Published: Jun 4, 2014
Length: 32 minutes (8,196 words)