The Rise And Fall Of Marty Tirrell
From central Iowa radio pioneer to alleged scam artist. Money didn’t always belong to Tirrell, according to numerous court judgments against him. He defrauded eight people out of $1.5 million.
How Mormons Built The Next Silicon Valley While No One Was Looking
Unglamorous, rapidly scalable businesses that play into a theme investors affectionately refer to as “the consumerization of enterprise.” Unsurprisingly, most of these companies are also headed by a young, white, Mormon guy.
What Will An Ice-Free Arctic Look Like?
Several years in the past decade have reached new lows for summer sea ice extent, raising questions about what will happen in this new Arctic as the ice declines and retreats. How will the ecosystem respond? Can treaties keep fishing in the central Arctic in check?
The Hijacking of the Brillante Virtuoso
A mysterious assault.An unsolved murder. And a ship that hasn’t given up all its secrets. This is the story of the hijacking of the Brilliante Virtuoso in the Gulf of Aden in July 2011.
The Spy Who Couldn’t Spell: How The Biggest Heist In The History Of Us Espionage Was Foiled
Being underestimated had been the theme of Brian Regan’s life, a curse he had borne silently since childhood. But for the mission he had now embarked upon, it was a blessing. No one in the intelligence community could have imagined that he of all people was capable of masterminding a complex espionage plot.
Iceland’s Big Bitcoin Heist
With its cheap geothermal energy and low crime rate, Iceland has become the world’s leading miner of digital currency. Then the crypto-crooks showed up. The thieves weren’t robbing banks. They were stealing the presses that print digital money.
Why Does It Feel Like Everyone Has More Money Than You?
Financial help from parents comes in many forms, and it’s the basis of so many success stories. So why do millennials act like it doesn’t exist? Harper’s Bazaar examines the myth—and tyranny—of the “self-made” success story.
Blood And Soil In Narendra Modi’s India
The Prime Minister’s Hindu-nationalist government has cast two hundred million Muslims as internal enemies. The lack of journalistic scrutiny has given Modi immense freedom to control the narrative. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the months leading up to his reëlection.
As Fires Rage In The Amazon, Brazil Massacres Activists Trying To Save The Rain Forest
Jane de Oliveira set out to protect the world’s largest rain forest from the corporate interests that are burning it to the ground. Then the armed men showed up.
So You Rented Out A Meth House
After finding meth paraphernalia, the only way for a property owner to be protected from any liability, both monetary and/or criminal, is to have the property properly tested for meth residue, and if found, cleaned according to state guidelines and by a state-certified inspector.
Why Burger King Is Proudly Advertising A Moldy, Disgusting Whopper
Burger King unveiled a global ad campaign aimed at highlighting its commitment to dropping all artificial preservatives. The chain’s anti-preservatives pledge breaks just about every rule in advertising.
Will The Millennial Aesthetic Ever End?
In this era, you come to understand, design was the product. Whatever else you might be buying, you were buying design, and all the design looked the same.
Schlitterbahn’s Tragic Slide
In the water park business, Jeff Hendry was considered a genius of sorts. He often said that his goal in life was to make customers of his family’s legendary water parks happy—“to put a smile on their faces, to give them a thrill or two.” It was a beautiful vision. Until it went horribly wrong.
At War With The Thruth
A confidential trove of government documents obtained by The Washington Post reveals that senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable.
“This Plane Is Not Going to Land in Cairo”: Saudi Prince Sultan Boarded A Flight in Paris. Then, He Disappeared
Prince Sultan bin Turki II was cut off from the Saudi royal family’s cash flow after criticizing the regime. So he appealed to Prince Mohammed bin Salman for help—and was never seen again.
Inside Kanye West’s Vision For The Future
First he changed the sound of popular music. Then he revolutionized fashion and sneakers. Now, Kanye West is redesigning the very building blocks of family life—food, clothing, and shelter—and he’s claimed thousands of acres in Wyoming as a test site for his ideas.
Kudos, Leaderboards, QOMs: How Fitness App Strava Became A Religion
Strava is a fitness and sports tracking platform that launched in 2009 and bills itself the “number one app for runners and cyclists”. The app offers community, training data and motivation to millions of athletes. Even runners who dislike tech can’t bear to be without it.
For Bumble, The Future Isn’t Female, It’s Female Marketing
Whitney Wolfe Herd set out to build a safer dating app for women, but it’s not clear that she’s made a measurable difference. According to a company user survey, about a third of Bumble women had received lewd photos from men, whether through text or other social media that Bumble couldn’t control.
How Much Is A Human Life Actually Worth?
As a society we have historically been willing to incur costs to save lives. Government forces carmakers to reduce air pollution to help people with asthma, and the price of cars goes up. Laws prevent factories from polluting to save fisheries, and goods cost more. But that kind of tradeoff clearly has limits.
How Vacation Became Just Another Thing We’re Working On
Something’s up with retreats. Isn’t this supposed to be the age of burnout? Don’t people deny themselves vacation days and spend all their leisure time working on their side-hustles? How are retreats so popular when regular, no-frills relaxation is elusive for so many people? Maybe retreats are the future of vacations.
Inside The All-Star Café Baseball Card Heist
A Coen Brothers-esque tale about knuckleheaded kitchen staffers at the All-Star Café, a Hollywood A-lister, the Mona Lisa of baseball cards and a plan that went horribly wrong.