Meet the Runner Who Leads Every Pack and Then Vanishes
Erik Sowinski is a professional pacer, a talented runner who is in high demand on starting lines, and nowhere to be found at the finish.
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The rise of the scented-candle industrial complex
Why is everyone waxing on about Diptyque?
The Oligarchs’ Derby
When the top teams in Greece meet, the story lines, and the rivalries, regularly extend far beyond the soccer field.
The blast furnace - 800 years of technology improvement
The modern world uses shocking amounts of steel.
‘One billionaire at a time’: inside the Swiss clinics where the super-rich
The long read: For the ultra-wealthy and the super-famous, regular therapy won’t do
The Dystopian Underworld of South Africa’s Illegal Gold Mines
When the country’s mining industry collapsed, a criminal economy grew in its place, with thousands of men climbing into some of the deepest shafts in the world, searching for leftover gold.
What’s a Japanese Mobster to Do in Retirement? Join a Softball Team. (Published 2023)
The members of the Ryuyukai have done nearly 100 years of hard time. Now they’re just looking to stay out of trouble.
The long search for artificial hearts
Humanity's engineering achievements have been extraordinary, so why has building an artificial heart has proved to be more challenging than expected.
No coach, no agent, no ego: the incredible story of the ‘Lionel Messi of cl
Gary Hunt is an enigma. He trains with the intensity of a modern athlete, but relaxes like a sportsman of a bygone era. He is fiercely competitive but unbelievably laid-back. How did he become the greatest cliff diver of all time?
The Strange Real-Life Mystery Behind Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat”
George Stebbins was tearing down a stone wall in the cellar of his home in Northfield, Massachusetts when he uncovered the bones. A skull emerged first, then the spine and the bones of the arms and…
Avenging Billy: How amateur sleuths took on a gay porn actor’s haunting Hollywood murder
Local sleuths help find a suspect in gay porn actor Bill Newton's murder. His dismembered head and feet were found in a Hollywood dumpster in 1990.
Portrait of a killer: art class in one of Mexico’s most notorious prisons
The long read: In 2016, artist César Aréchiga talked one of Mexico’s most dangerous maximum security prisons into letting him run art classes for its inmates, many of them violent gang members. Could he really change their lives?
The husband-and-wife forgers who fooled the art market — and made millions | CNN
Wolfgang and Helene Beltracchi’s forgeries infiltrated museums, auction houses and private collections. A decade after their conviction, psychoanalyst Jeannette Fischer asks: Why did they do it?
The Defiance of Salman Rushdie
After a near-fatal stabbing—and decades of threats—the novelist speaks about writing as a death-defying act.
How to Become a Regular at a Texas Dive Bar
Follow these tips and tricks to becoming beloved at your local watering hole from the guy who literally wrote the book.
Joe Montana Was Here
He won four Super Bowls and retired as the undisputed greatest. What came next was turning a legacy into a life.
Madeline Kripke Owned 20,000 Books, Some of Them Very Bawdy
She had perhaps the largest personal dictionary collection in the world. It is certainly the most titillating.
The Laundress Was Supposed to Be the Nice Detergent
Until people started breaking out into hideous rashes.
I Never Understood Why Veterinarians Are at Such High Risk of Suicide. Until I Became One.
The story of Lacey, and why I had to kill her.
43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief – Lennart Koopmann
In September 2022, after watching many YouTube videos of other people on long-distance Amtrak trips, I finally embarked on a journey of my own. I took the Amtrak Southwest Chief train from Chicago to Los Angeles. Continue reading to learn more about it and why I'll do it again…
The Dirt on Pig-Pen | Elif Batuman
Pig-Pen was dirty — visibly so... That’s who and how he was. And yet — what was that dirtiness? Was it essential or incidental? How did it work?
In pursuit of decent coffee
No great stagnation in home espresso
The First Family of Human Cannonballing
David and Jeannie Smith gave up their day jobs for a life of daredevil stunts —with six children in tow. Five decades, thousands of cannon shots and multiple Guinness World Records later, this stupendous family business is still defying gravity and all
The Man Who Fixes the World's Finest Violins
He’s trusted to repair some of the world’s most fabled — and expensive — instruments. How does John Becker manage to unlock the sound of a Stradivarius?
A journey to Earth's most remote flower
Tagimoucia is so rare that it only grows on one of Fiji's 330 islands, it's found high atop a steep mountain ridge and it blooms for less than three months a year.
The Spectacular Case of Lørenskog: Norway's Ongoing Search for a Murderer
Anne-Elisabeth Hagen, 68, was married to one of the wealthiest men in Norway. But four years ago, she disappeared, and police still have no solid leads. The entire country has been obsessed by the case ever since.
Spirited Away: A Peek into the World of China’s Door Gods
While the superstition isn’t widespread, the age-old tradition of hanging up door gods still endures during Lunar New Year.
The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler: Hager…
The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler [Hager, Thomas] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific…
Extraction
When your great-grandparents grew up in Stalin’s terror-famine, your grandparents in the Holocaust, and your parents in a straddle between totalitarianism and democracy, you grew up confused about pain. Were you entitled to it? Was it real?
I Became a Pastor during the Pandemic | The Walrus
I wasn’t prepared for the challenges I would face as a priest during COVID-19
The Schwarzschild defence
Nature - A boost to the ratings.
The Getty Family’s Trust Issues
Heirs to an iconic fortune sought out a wealth manager who would assuage their progressive consciences. Now their dispute is exposing dynastic secrets.
Remembering the triumph and tragedy of the 1986 Paris-Dakar rally - Hagerty Media
The Paris-Dakar rally has an insane history of adventure, but none greater in triumph or tragedy than the 1986 running.
Victory
Eleven-year-old Victoria has her sights set on playing Little League with the boys. She goes through tryouts and is told to learn to cook…
Life Lessons from 1,000 Years | The Curiosity Chronicle
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The Curiosity Chronicle has quickly become one of the most popular newsletters for growth-minded individuals in the world. Each week, subscribers receive a deep dive that covers topics ranging from growth and decision-making to business, finance, startups, and technology. In…
How pulling off a ‘potato trick’ ended a baseball player’s career
Dave Bresnahan never made it past AA, but, thanks to a specially prepared potato, he holds a place in baseball lore
Hello world!
Catapult publishes literary fiction and artful narrative nonfiction that engages with our Perception Box, the powerful metaphor we use to define the structure and boundaries of how we see others in th
The Science of Mind Reading
Researchers are pursuing age-old questions about the nature of thoughts—and learning how to read them.
Why Did Walter Springs Die?
When a 24-year-old Denver soldier was shot and killed by military police near his base in Texas in 1942, his family and friends suspected the official story wasn’t complete. They were right.
The Miraculous Life and Afterlife of Charlene Richard (Published 2022)
She died in 1959, at age 12. But for Catholics in her Louisiana community, that was just the beginning of her incredible story — and a decades-long fight to make her a saint.
And the Lord Said, “You’ve Got a Time-Out, Mister”
Was banishment from the Garden too tough a punishment for Adam and Eve? And other parental conundrums.
Trapped in the Trenches in Ukraine
Along the country’s seven-hundred-mile front line, constant artillery fire and drone surveillance have made it excruciatingly difficult to maneuver.
The True Story of Lawrence of Arabia
His daring raids in World War I made him a legend. But in the Middle East today, the desert warrior’s legacy is written in sand
What Humans Can Learn From The Language Of Honeybees
Advanced technologies like A.I. are enabling scientists to learn that the world is full of intelligent creatures with sophisticated languages, like honeybees. What might they tell us?
How Michael Goguen Got Conned
How one billionaire with a savior complex and a voracious sexual appetite got conned by his best friend, who saw him as the perfect mark.
The Enduring Metal Genius of Metallica
On the road with the band in its forty-first year.
Life in the Slow Lane
Olivia Potts | Longreads | November 2022 | 16 minutes (4,649 words) It’s six in the morning, and Robert Booth has already been on the road for three hours. Sitting alongside him in the cab of his lorry (the British term for a truck) is Louis, Robert’s small dog, a Jack…
The Vineyard Falcon Does Not Suffer Fools
Master falconer Alina Blankenship and her mélange of raptors have become the protectors of some of Oregon's top vineyards.
The Art of Bidding: How I Survived Federal Prison | The Marshall Project
When Eric Borsuk went to prison with his two best friends, they found their ‘bid’ — their purpose — together. Then one day, everything changed.
The Night Warren Zevon Left the ‘Late Show’ Building
On October 30, 2002, a cancer-stricken Warren Zevon returned to the ‘Late Show With David Letterman’ stage for one last performance. Twenty years later, Letterman and more remember the gravitas and emotion of that stunning night.