Search Results for: profile

Annotating the Mind Behind ‘Genius’: Our College Pick

After Rap Genius cofounder Mahbod Moghadam was forced out of the company for writing horrible Tweets about a spree killer’s manifesto, the public’s interest shifted to the next misuse of social media. Not so for Yale Herald writer Kohler Bruno, who wondered what Moghadam’s life was like sans free Whole Foods and away from Genius, now with a valuation just shy of $1 billion. Moghadam lives in LA and doesn’t care for New York, so many of the conversations between reporter and subject were conduced over the phone or via email or text. It is a 21st-century way to profile someone who lived life online. Throughout the story, Bruno seems as confused as anyone what to make of Moghadam, whose “jokes” are difficult to parse. The piece itself is annotated, a comment not only on Genius’s gimmick, but on the nature of the reporting itself.

The Genius Out in the Cold

Kohler Bruno | The Yale Herald | January 22, 2015 | 5,853 words (23 minutes)

The Rewards of a Literary Marriage

Longreads Pick

A profile of the writers Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne from the New York Times magazine, circa 1987.

Published: Feb 8, 1987
Length: 25 minutes (6,450 words)

Why It Pays to Work the Fringes

Longreads Pick

A profile of New York Times photojournalist Lynsey Addario, a Pulitzer Prize-winning female war correspondent.

Published: Jan 5, 2015
Length: 12 minutes (3,000 words)

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

Below, our favorite stories of the week. Kindle users, you can also get them as a Readlist.

Sign up to receive this list free every Friday in your inbox.

* * *

Read more…

The Megyn Kelly Moment

Longreads Pick

A profile of Fox News’ newest star, Megyn Kelly, and how her approach has brought praise from unlikely corners.

Published: Jan 21, 2015
Length: 28 minutes (7,048 words)

Watching Willie’s Back

Longreads Pick

“Mess with Willie Nelson and the next thing you’ll see is the wrong end of a gun held by the Devil himself, Robert Paul English.” A profile of Paul English, Willie Nelson’s friend, drummer, and protector.

Source: Oxford American
Published: Jan 12, 2015
Length: 27 minutes (6,931 words)

Seven Stories for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Below are seven stories about (or by) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., exploring different facets of his life and legacy.

“Alex Haley Interviews Martin Luther King, Jr.” (Alex Haley, Playboy Magazine, January 1965)

King sat down for a series of interviews with the author Alex Haley shortly after he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. They were edited and compiled into one interview that ran in the magazine the next year, which—according to The Daily Beast—was the longest interview King ever gave any publication. Read more…

Committed: Stories About Stays in Psychiatric Facilities

In this week’s list, I wanted to share the experiences of those committed—voluntarily or not—to a psychiatric facility. From One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to Nellie Bly’s 19th century expose to American Horror Story: Asylum, the “madhouse” occupies a weird space in America’s psyche, equal parts fascinating and feared. But the experiences of the patients and their caretakers are, obviously, very different than sensationalized cinematic accounts.

1. “Something More Wrong.” (Katherine B. Olson, The Big Roundtable, July 2013)

In this well-wrought essay, Katherine B. Olson profiles Alice Trovato, a woman and patient who mothers her unofficial charges and strives to make the most of her stay at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in the greens of Queens. Read more…

The Jet Set Life of Karl Lagerfeld’s Favorite Male Model — for Now

Longreads Pick

A profile of model Brad Kroenig, close friend and muse to designer Karl Lagerfeld, as he jets from his young son’s little league practice in suburban New Jersey to fashion shows in Dubai.

Published: Jan 17, 2015
Length: 21 minutes (5,400 words)

The Dark Arts: A Corporate Espionage Reading List

Corporate espionage takes many forms and is known by a number of names. At its most benign, it’s “competitive-intelligence,” which is the kind of information gathering that George Chidi describes in Inc. On the other end of the spectrum is the far more exciting—and illicit—line of work seen in Richard Behar’s 1999 story about the pharmaceutical industry. Here are five stories that delve deep into the murky world of corporate information gathering.

1. “Drug Spies” (Richard Behar, Fortune, September 1999)

This story about corporate spies fighting pirated drugs in the high stakes pharmaceutical industry reads like a summer action movie, complete with former Scotland Yard detectives, solitary confinement in a Cyprus prison and multinational drug giants. Read more…