The Undiscovered Country
Can suicide be predicted?
Will Stephenson
The Well-Tempered Synthesizer
Wendy Carlos’s music of the spheres.
The Disaster and How Some Escaped
On the curious life of Archibald Butt, confidant to President Taft and tragic victim of the sinking Titanic.
As much as the narrative of Butt’s heroism meant to the family, to the White House, to the military, it seems all too cinematic. The reality is that the experience was probably a great annoyance to him, right up until the moment it became a nightmare.
Perfectly Boring
On William Eggleston’s The Red Ceiling and an unsolved murder.
The Ballad of Fred and Yoko
How one of the world’s foremost Beatles collectors died homeless on the streets of Little Rock.
Nights of Terror, Days of Weird
On the chaotic letters of journalist and Dr. Strangelove screenwriter Terry Southern.
A Killing in Pocahontas
The murder of a 34-year-old by a wig-wearing figure traces back to meth, an FBI sting and a former municipal judge who once sent a live copperhead snake to a foe through the U.S. mail.
