Nick Leiber | Longreads | March 2015 The first battery, a pile of copper and zinc discs, was invented more than 200 years ago, ushering in the electric age. Subsequent versions led to portable electronics, mobile computing, and our current love affair with smartphones (1,000 of which are shipped every 22 seconds). Now batteries are […]
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Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Pablo Escobar: Renaissance Man
As dusk settles on the Magdalena Valley, the jungly middle stretch of Colombia’s great river basin, the hippopotamuses bawl and snort. The indelicate groans of these multi-ton beasts border on comedic, but mostly their ruckus is a fearsome thing—a primal ritual that has churned these waters ever since Pablo Escobar imported four hippos to his […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Who Poisoned The Orkin Fortune?
Atlanta’s Rollins family has long been known for two things: throwing great parties and spawning the Orkin pest control empire. Forbes investigates the $8 billion family feud that has brought their name back into the headlines.
Posted inNonfiction
Borges and $: The Parable of the Literary Master and the Coin
Thirty years ago, the world lost a great literary mind—the Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges. Today, Elizabeth Hyde Stevens revisits the financial conditions that produced this life of pure literature, finding unexpected hope in the darkest period of Borges’ forgotten past.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
King-Killers in America (and the American Who Avenged the King)
When Charles II regained the throne, he launched a global manhunt for the judges who had sentenced his father to death.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The ‘Quasi-Celebrity’ Gene Editing Pioneer
The controversial genome editing technique Crispr-Cas9 has sparked some fascinating recent deep-dives, including Backchannel’s “Editing the Software of Life, for Fame and Fortune” in June, and Wired’s July cover story “The Genesis Engine,” which inspired the Twitter hashtag #crisprfacts. Jennifer Doudna, the biochemist who helped invent the breakthrough tool, often helps anchor the coverage. Andrew […]
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction
Home Is Where the Fraud Is
At the height of the housing crisis, one woman’s bureaucratic odyssey to discover who really owns her home leads her to startling revelations about the housing market.
Posted inMember Pick, Nonfiction
The Bomb in the Bag
How America’s first suicide attack changed one man’s fortune forever.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Spectacular Rise and Surprising Exit of a Hollywood Executive
Richard Nanula started his career big: At 31, he became CFO of Disney, among the youngest ever at a Fortune 500 company. He later ran Starwood Hotels & Resorts, and Miramax. Then came the allegations that he filmed sex scenes with porn actresses.
