The Toughest Girl in Malibu
Malibu, 1950. Before Gidget, before even Miki Dora, there was one surfer who ruled the waves and was known for cutting down anyone who got in her way. And she…
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Photographer Joel Meyerowitz: The Pleasure of Seeing
Legendary photographer Joel Meyerowitz has been capturing life itself since 1962. Whether on the streets of New York City, the sand dunes of Cape Cod, or in transit across Europe,…
Callings
In the 1940s, a freelance wiretapper named Big Jim Vaus got mixed up with the cops, the mob, and the most famous evangelist in America. This week on The Last…
How to Break a Guinness World Record
How did the Guinness World Records company come to be? And how, in the age of the internet, does the company make money? Imogen West-Knights spent a year investigating. She…
12. A Nasty Piece of Work
When he dies, in 2002, Miki leaves wreckage in his wake. A stash of letters reveal his deepest and most toxic beliefs. And Linda Cuy explains the true cost of…
At Home with Writer Joyce Carol Oates
Last summer, we traveled to Princeton, New Jersey to sit with legendary writer Joyce Carol Oates. The talk begins with her daily routine, from writing to revision (6:34), the real-life…
Chelsea Fagan, Money whiz who rebounded from shitty credit
Once upon a time, Chelsea Fagan was a financial mess. She had a credit score of around 450, debt that went to collections, and so many unpaid traffic tickets that…
Welcome to McCartney: A Life in Lyrics
Welcome to “McCartney: A Life in Lyrics.” This podcast will take you into the mind of one of the greatest songwriters of all time: Paul McCartney. The result is a combination…
Paul Simon
Paul Simon is one of the greatest living songwriters. Since debuting with Art Garfunkel in 1957, Paul Simon has written countless songs quintessential to the American psyche. This year, at…
Acting Out
In the 1930s, at a women’s reformatory in upstate New York, an upstart social scientist made a study that launched the field of social network analysis. It was revolutionary, but…
When Parakeets Plundered New York
Cautionary Conversation: An invasive parakeet species began spreading in New York City – and the government decided to kill every last bird. Tim Harford is joined by Ben Naddaff-Hafrey, host…
A Visit to Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap Factory
The history of Dr. Bronner’s soap is even crazier than the famously crazy writing on the side of a Dr. Bronner’s soap bottle. The company was founded by a man…