We asked Washington Post reporter Dan Zak how he stumbled upon “The Prophets of Oak Ridge.” Here’s his account: “This story happened because a generous colleague, Dana Priest, pitched it downstairs to my area of the newsroom. She had finished a series on the country’s aging nuclear arsenal and a shorter news story on security lapses […]
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The Innocent Man, Part Two
The second part of Texas Monthly’s series on Michael Morton’s wrongful conviction for the murder of his wife (read part one here): “It was this sense of certainty that appeared to have blinded investigators to what was surely the most incredible missed clue in the entire case: a handwritten phone message for Wood reporting that […]
Here’s the Thing: Alec Baldwin Interviews David Letterman
[Transcript] A conversation between the actor and late-night host—and memories of working together: “David Letterman: We did a sketch on the old ‘Late Night’ show, and it was with one of the writers, Tom Gammill, and it was ‘Dale, the Psychotic Page.’ We had to set up nine holes of a miniature golf course. He […]
A Year After the Non-Apocalypse: Where Are They Now?
Radio broadcaster Harold Camping predicted the world would end on May 21, 2011. It didn’t. A look at what happened to some of Camping’s followers: “I was struck by how some believers edited the past in order to avoid acknowledging that they had been mistaken. The engineer in his mid-twenties, the one who told me […]
‘Citizen King’ (PBS Transcript)
From PBS’s American Experience, transcript from a documentary on Martin Luther King Jr.: “CORETTA SCOTT KING: Christmas will be sad for us. As it will be for many people I think this year. But I think that it doesn’t mean that we will sit around and bathe in our grief. I think that, very often, […]
Murder by Text
When Kruse IM’d Kim to see if she was done babysitting, no response came. But he didn’t expect one. The instant message was a cover. Kruse knew Kim had never made it to her job. She was right there in his house with him and Cam. Bound. Beaten. Raped. And, by the next morning, stuffed […]
How the Other Half Tests
Most Americans think of the SAT as the ultimate high-stakes college admissions test, but the Accuplacer has more real claim to the title. (As it happens, the same company, the Education Testing Service, produces both exams.) When students apply to selective colleges, they’re evaluated based on high school transcripts, extracurricular pursuits, teacher recommendations, and other […]
Transcript: The Julian Assange Interview
Q: Here you are facing, possibly facing, very, very serious charges indeed, double rape even, is a possibility—and you are saying: “I will not go back to the country where those offenses are alleged to have been carried out to face the music.” JA: No, I have never said that. Q: In that case you […]
Transcript: Remarks of President Obama in Cairo
We meet at a time of tension between the United States and Muslims around the world – tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate. The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by […]
The Vulture Transcript: David Sedaris
So about seven years ago I wrote a story about a cat in a bad mood. And then the next fall another one. So I tried to write a few every year, but for every one that worked, there were two that didn’t. And then, obviously, I stepped it up over the past year and […]
