Robin Nagle, New York’s Garbage Anthropologist

Obstacles faced by the modern sanitation worker: Fourteen thousand tons of household waste per day Constant reminders of their inherent mortality The stench Arthur, the cartoon aardvark

Author: Alex Carp
Source: The Believer
Published: Sep 1, 2010
Length: 16 minutes (4,009 words)

Sweatpants In Paradise

Nice Girls Who Like Stuff, Abercrombie and Fitch, One-Armed Pushups, California Adolescence, Weed, The Redemptive Quality of Sensory Exploration

Source: The Believer
Published: Sep 1, 2010
Length: 11 minutes (2,970 words)

Watching Shrek In Tehran

The Seen And The Unseen In Iranian Cinema

Source: The Believer
Published: Apr 1, 2010
Length: 12 minutes (3,177 words)

The Disappearance of Ford Beckman

How A Celebrated American Artist Was Forced To Trade His Multimillion-Dollar Collection For A Job Selling Donuts

Source: The Believer
Published: Nov 1, 2009
Length: 27 minutes (6,816 words)

The Believer on Errol Morris

Source: The Believer
Published: Apr 1, 2004
Length: 16 minutes (4,174 words)

In Pursuit of the Wild Cohiba

Two Semi-Intrepid Travelers Meditate (With The Help Of A Great Deal Of Puffing) On The Cuban Communist Roots Of An American Capitalist Icon.

Source: The Believer
Published: Oct 1, 2009
Length: 30 minutes (7,510 words)

Closing Time

The History Of America Is The History Of The Automobile Industry— Which Is Far Older And Stranger Than You Might Imagine.

Author: Rich Cohen
Source: The Believer
Published: Sep 1, 2009
Length: 42 minutes (10,520 words)

Dancing About Architecture

A Meditation On Possibly Futile Artistic Pursuits

Source: The Believer
Published: Jul 28, 2009
Length: 14 minutes (3,614 words)

Interview with Heart’s Nancy Wilson

The lightning bolt came out of the heavens and struck Ann and me the first time we saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. My family was living on the marine base in Camp Pendleton, California, and we’d all gathered around the little black-and-white TV at our grandmother’s in La Jolla. Most people didn’t have color sets at home back then. There’d been so much anticipation and hype about the Beatles that it was a huge event, like the lunar landing: that was the moment Ann and I heard the call to become rock musicians. I was seven or eight at the time.

Source: The Believer
Published: Aug 28, 2007
Length: 23 minutes (5,893 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)