“For a decade, one writer tried to unravel the story of Dorje Chang, whose artwork sold for millions and who claimed to be the third coming of Buddha. Then he got an email: Dorje Chang and his wife were dead. What really happened?”
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The Bullet and the Ballplayer
In 2019, beloved baseball player David Ortiz was shot at a bar in the Dominican Republic. The shooting swiftly unraveled the two very different lives the Boston Red Sox star had been living, in Boston and in his home country. Mike Damiano masterfully tells Ortiz’s story for Boston magazine. That frenzied quest for answers has […]
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Pieces from Benji Jones, Howard Bryant, Carey Baraka, Sally Jenkins, and Jeannette Cooperman.
Moral Panics Come and Go. Sex Bracelet Hysteria Is Forever.
When the popularity of colored jelly bracelets led to a bizarre moral panic, it demonstrated more about adults than the kids wearing them. By the spring, a Fox News segment cautioned that “kids today may be trading sex acts like we traded baseball cards.” On Good Morning America, Diane Sawyer cautioned parents to ask their children […]
An Alleged $500 Million Ponzi Scheme Preyed on Mormons. It Ended with FBI Gunfire.
“In Las Vegas, a lawyer with huge gambling debts is accused of a financial fraud that left hundreds of victims in its wake.”
What’s in a Name, and Our Top 5
“At home, I was Spanish. At school, American. When mom got angry at us, the ultimate insult would be spewed: ‘Ay! That is so American!’ But outside of the house, while in the presence of my peers, I wanted that to be true. Being so American would mean I would be allowed to wear shorts to school. I would […]
I Had a Chance to Travel Anywhere. Why Did I Pick Spokane?
“After 18 months of pandemic parenting isolation, the writer Jon Mooallem knew just where the cure might lie: a minor-league baseball game in eastern Washington.”
The Incredible Story of Ray Caldwell, the MLB Pitcher Who Survived a Lightning Strike to Finish a Game
“Caldwell is on his back, arms spread wide, out cold on the mound. The lightning strike had hit him directly.”
The Auctioneer
“Some boys fall in love with trains, trucks, or baseball. Detweiler was beguiled by auctioneers.”
The Story of Honoring Negro League History and a Search for Buried Treasure
“But the numbers will never tell the true story of the Negro Leagues. They just won’t. For me, it is about context. I don’t want the legend of these athletes to ever die.”


