In the fall of 2018, Paradise, California, a small town among the high, forested buttes at the northern end of the Central Valley, was a tinderbox. The hot summer had sucked the moisture out of the grass and the pine forest. Demon winds blew through the trees and canyons. Everyone …
Read More »What Was the Real Relationship Between Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Gates?
As the world now knows,one of the more surprising names to have popped up around Jeffrey Epstein is Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. It’s been widely reported that Gates had flown on Epstein’s plane at least once, and visited his home multiple times — but the depth of their relationship is …
Read More »Ghislaine Maxwell Is Subject of New True-Crime Podcast From Audible
Audible, Inc. has announced a new true-crime podcast series, Chasing Ghislaine, which will investigate the decades-long saga of Jeffrey Epstein‘s alleged co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. Hosted by journalist andNew York Times bestselling author Vicky Ward,Chasing Ghislaine will premiere July 15th and conclude just before Maxwell’s trial for her alleged involvement with …
Read More »Track Star Sha'Carri Richardson Could Miss Olympics After Testing Positive for Marijuana
Track and field star Sha’Carri Richardson could miss the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for marijuana, The New York Times reports. The 21-year-old sprinter, who won the women’s 100-meter race at the U.S. track and field trials in Oregon last month, accepted a one-month suspension after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency …
Read More »How Brandan Robertson, a.k.a. the 'Tik-Tok Preacher,' Is Taking on the Anti-LGBTQ Teachings of His Faith
This piece originally appeared as part of Rolling Stone’s annual Hot List, in the July/August 2021 issue of the magazine. Recently this thing has been happening to Brandan Robertson. He’ll be at a gay bar, minding his own business (sort of), when someone will approach to ask, “Are you a …
Read More »Derek Chauvin Sentenced to 22.5 Years for Murder of George Floyd
On Friday, a Minnesota judge sentenced white former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to 22.5 years in prison for the murder of George Floyd, the black, unarmed father of five whose neck Chauvin pressed his knee into for nine-and-a-half minutes on May 25, 2020. The killing sparked weeks of worldwide …
Read More »On Pandemics, Climate Change, and Finding Humor Amid the Doom
The Covid pandemic is not over, and may not be over for a long while yet. But with vaccination rates up, this might be a good moment to pause and think about what a microscopic virus has done to our world. Already there’s a literary pandemic of excellent books emerging, …
Read More »'Rent' Releases Rare Jonathan Larson Demos in Honor of 25th Anniversary
Before there was Be More Chill,before there wasSpring Awakening,before teens were swiping on purple eyeliner and lipsynching to Beetlejuice’s “Dead Mom” on TikTok, there was Rent. The iconic rock musical was a multicultural paean to the lives of impoverished musicians, filmmakers, philosopher-poets, kinksters, runaways, and junkies struggling to survive in …
Read More »The Power of Deja Foxx
Deja Foxx was unpacking in her dorm room to start her sophomore year at Columbia University when Meena Harris DM’d her about working on her Aunt Kamala’s presidential campaign. “I just started repacking,” Foxx says, laughing. “I wasn’t going to sit in a classroom and talk about Plato and Aristotle …
Read More »Hunter Biden Announces Memoir 'Beautiful Things,' Out in April
Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, has a new memoir coming out on April 6th. The book, titledBeautiful Things, will center on Biden’s ongoing struggles with substance abuse, according to its publisher Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Although acquired in late 2019, the memoir was reportedly …
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