Longreads

The complex web of deceit that was the Iran-Contra affair is now mostly forgotten, subsumed by Ronald Reagan’s reputation as a conservative hero. But the CIA’s interference in Nicaragua is impossible to ignore, even if the remnants of it whither away.

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, a Hutu from Burundi shares his story of surviving President Paul Kagame’s alleged secret war of vengeance, one obscured by the fight to overthrow Congo dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

Ryan Freel’s 2012 suicide shed light on the rarely mentioned issue of mental health in baseball. Dirk Hayhurst’s new book goes even further, chronicling his own struggles in the majors, and the culture that tries to keep those kinds of discussions quiet.

The market is huge and about to get much bigger—so why have high-end design companies almost entirely ignored people with disabilities and demand for a next generation wheelchair?

The middle class is shrinking. As the Internet has wildly expanded our options, it has, paradoxically, shrunk our horizons: as thinkers like Astra Taylor, author of The People’s Platform, warn, a generic set of crowd-pleasing blockbusters dominates more than ever.

This week, Al Goldstein—the oversized pornographer with the oversized mouth and libido—died of renal failure. Our writer tracks the Screw founder from his humble, filthy beginnings to his deathbed in Brooklyn, days before he passed.

To those deemed worthy, six weeks at the MacDowell Colony bring new work, friendships, and great meals. Compare this to the Canadian model, in which artists (even emerging ones) receive just enough to live on from governments. Which way works best?

Jamie Gillis’ On the Prowl was the first gonzo porn video ever shot, spawning a genre that now dominates the Internet, and the minds of many men. But is gonzo today what its creator—intellectual, urbane, disgusting, and sometimes downright evil—had in mind?

Karyn Kupcinet, Dorothy Kilgallen, and Mary Pinchot Meyer had little in common in life. In death, however, they share one particular indignity: having their untimely ends overshadowed by the ever-churning John F. Kennedy conspiracy machine.