Boogie Nights

It became known, and ultimately reviled, as Disco. Interviews with Donna Summer, Ian Schrager, Gloria Gaynor, and others who helped create the strobe-lit, sex-driven, amyl-nitrite-fueled scene, the phenomena of Studio 54 and Saturday Night Fever, and the songs that reverberated into a new millennium.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Feb 1, 2010
Length: 24 minutes (6,245 words)

The Shot Heard ’Round the Clubs

The mystery of Finn M. W. Caspersen still haunts the high-Wasp enclaves of Florida’s Jupiter Island, the Rhode Island shore town of Westerly, and New Jersey horse country: What led the well-connected, immensely wealthy 67-year-old philanthropist to such a shocking act? The author searches out the shadows in an outwardly impeccable life.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Jan 1, 2010
Length: 21 minutes (5,261 words)

Something About Meryl

Since she turned 38, Meryl Streep has been waiting for her career to crater. Instead, at 60, she is more of a box-office powerhouse than ever—and coming off her indelible performance in Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia, she’s being pursued by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin this month in the romantic comedy It’s Complicated.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Jan 1, 2010
Length: 22 minutes (5,700 words)

In Defense of Foxhole Atheists

It’s no secret that conservative Christians dominate the U.S. military, but when higher-ups start talking about conversion missions, it’s time to worry. The author meets a group of soldiers who aren’t having it.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Dec 15, 2009
Length: 26 minutes (6,542 words)

Enemies of the Estate

The diminished but still fabulously wealthy and powerful British aristocracy has survived agricultural decline, estate taxes, and world war, often bolstered by strategic marriage. Will its ancient code and customs be finished off for good by divorce?

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Jan 1, 2010
Length: 10 minutes (2,574 words)

The Genesis 2.0 Project

Compared with the market-driven, killer-app insta-culture of the Digital Age, the new Large Hadron Collider exists in a near-magical realm, a $9 billion cathedral of science that is apparently, in any practical sense, useless.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Jan 1, 2010
Length: 16 minutes (4,065 words)

Tycoon, Contractor, Soldier, Spy

Erik Prince, recently outed as a participant in a C.I.A. assassination program, has gained notoriety as head of the military-contracting juggernaut Blackwater, a company dogged by a grand-jury investigation, bribery accusations, and the voluntary-manslaughter trial of five ex-employees, set for next month. Lashing back at his critics, the wealthy former navy seal takes the author inside his operation in the U.S. and Afghanistan, revealing the role he’s been playing in America’s war on terror.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Jan 1, 2010
Length: 23 minutes (5,995 words)

The Bank Job

One of the biggest disconnects on Wall Street today is between the way Goldman Sachs sees itself (they’re the smartest) and the way everyone else sees Goldman (they’re the smartest, greediest, and most dangerous). Questioning C.E.O. Lloyd Blankfein, C.O.O. Gary Cohn, and C.F.O. David Viniar.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Jan 1, 2010
Length: 20 minutes (5,180 words)

Rich Harvard, Poor Harvard

Only a year ago, Harvard had a $36.9 billion endowment, the largest in academia. Now that endowment has imploded, and the university faces the worst financial crisis in its 373-year history. And how much of the turmoil is the fault of former Harvard president Larry Summers?

Author: Nina Munk
Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Aug 1, 2009
Length: 13 minutes (3,386 words)

Addicted to Cute

America has been flooded by a tsunami of cute–we’re drowning in puppies and kittens and bunnies and cupcakes–that is transforming marketing (the Geico Gecko), automobiles (the Smart car), and movies (Up). But is the world bound to sour on all this sweetness?

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Dec 1, 2009
Length: 36 minutes (9,115 words)