The Mogul of the Middle

Friend goes inside the offices of STX Entertainment in Burbank, California, providing a revealing look at how movies are green lit, made and marketed in a foundering industry.

Author: Tad Friend
Source: The New Yorker
Published: Jan 4, 2016
Length: 44 minutes (11,000 words)

Bacteria on the Brain

A brilliant surgeon offered dying patients an experimental, untested treatment. Was his controversial approach life-saving innovation or an unethical overreach?

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Dec 3, 2015
Length: 26 minutes (6,520 words)

Teach Yourself Italian

Jhumpa Lahiri on language, transformation, and learning to write in Italian.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Nov 30, 2015
Length: 19 minutes (4,938 words)

Unfollow

How social media changed the beliefs of a devout member of the Westboro Baptist Church, which pickets the funerals of gay men and of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Nov 16, 2015
Length: 42 minutes (10,643 words)

Blood Ties

Two college lovers, and a murder in 1985.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Nov 2, 2015
Length: 46 minutes (11,679 words)

Freedom From Fries

How fast food is evolving to satiate the appetites of consumers searching for healthy options.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Oct 26, 2015
Length: 26 minutes (6,630 words)

My Writing Education: A Time Line

Why do our writing teachers have such a huge impact on us? George Saunders on early lessons learned.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Oct 23, 2015
Length: 16 minutes (4,201 words)

Pond Scum

Kathryn Schulz takes down Henry David Thoreau: “It is true that Thoreau was an excellent naturalist and an eloquent and prescient voice for the preservation of wild places. But ‘Walden’ is less a cornerstone work of environmental literature than the original cabin porn: a fantasy about rustic life divorced from the reality of living in the woods, and, especially, a fantasy about escaping the entanglements and responsibilities of living among other people.”

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Oct 13, 2015
Length: 22 minutes (5,660 words)

Blank Space: What Kind of Genius Is Max Martin?

From “… Baby One More Time” to “Can’t Feel My Face,” meet the Swedish songwriter responsible for the biggest pop hits of the last 20 years.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Oct 5, 2015
Length: 14 minutes (3,515 words)

A Daughter’s Death

After the murder of his daughter, a father sets out to find ways to stop the cycle of violence in his community.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Sep 28, 2015
Length: 36 minutes (9,244 words)