“Turf wars. Protection money. Scientology. And my boss, a man who’s half-convinced he really is Santa.”
business
Posted inEditor's Pick
How the 1% Runs an Ironman
“Inside the world of Ironman XC, which makes the endurance contest a little more endurable — for executives who can afford to pay.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Promise and Peril of Space Tourism
“A space tourism industry is being built on the proposition of personal and existential transformation. But at what cost?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Failure to Launch
“Launch House promised young tech founders community. A Vox investigation found what happens when clout and cash are paramount, and protecting members falls by the wayside.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Milk Money
Reeves Wiederman reports on how the baby-formula shortage in the U.S. created an opportunity for new companies to enter an industry historically dominated by a few corporations. Laura Modi, a Google and Airbnb alum who founded the baby-formula startup Bobbie, is one such CEO hoping to transform an industry “that has grown complacent.” As Modi […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Death Cheaters
“The members of Longevity House are united by two things: a willingness to hand over $100,000 and a burning desire to live forever. Inside the weird world of cryotherapy, biocharging and fecal transplants.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Twisted Life of Clippy
In the 1990s, Microsoft created a virtual assistant in Microsoft Office that users found annoying — so it was swiftly retired. For Seattle Met, Benjamin Cassidy recounts the history of an unloved and doomed office assistant that has lived on in pop and nerd culture. These days, an annoying Word creature might seem eminently tolerable […]
Posted inCuration, Nonfiction, Top 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, our editors recommend longreads by Benjamin Wofford, Josh Dzieza, Evan Osnos, Alice Wong & Ed Yong, and Dan Kois.
Posted inEditor's Pick
When Baking and Real Estate Collide
For The New Yorker, Anna Wiener explores the cuisine-real-estate business model and traces the rise of Tartine, the artisanal San Francisco bakery known for its delicious breads and pastries and hip, airy spaces. How did this beloved spot in the Mission become a world-renowned brand? And is this food empire really what it seems? Certain […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Korean Immigrant and Michigan Farm Boy Who Taught Americans How to Cook Chow Mein
In 1922, two college classmates in Detroit — a Korean immigrant named Ilhan New and an American named Wally Smith — founded La Choy, a company that mass-produced Chinese food products. One hundred years later, to Chinese Americans the brand is “synonymous with cultural inauthenticity, even appropriation.” But, as Cathy Erway explores for Taste, the […]