This profile of Macaulay Culkin, the first he’s sat for in 15 years, is one for the ages. (Esquire, ~28 min.)
A delightful chat with the director and distributor of Parasite, 2020’s big Oscar winner. (Variety, ~14 min.)
Trump should be anathema to Christians, yet they continue to support him in spite of increasingly egregious words and actions. What’s the deal? (French Press, ~8 min.)
Inside the fight to beat Tampax in world tampon domination. This is business writing at its finest. (The Guardian, ~27 min.)
Meet Charles Bess, the black busboy in the background of the famous 1960 photo of the sit-in at Woolworth’s lunch counter. (Bitter Southerner, ~10 min.)
Based on a true story, The Tattooist of Auschwitz was a global literary phenomenon. But family members of the real people portrayed in the book are astonished at the author’s perversions of truth. (The Monthly, ~24 min.)
Eddy Curry was the longtime laughingstock of the NBA. But people didn’t know the half of it. (Players’ Tribune, ~20 min.)
Lincoln’s legacy of environmentalism has long been overlooked, what with the Civil War and the ending of slavery and his assassination. But a look at his record shows he was quite the green president. (Washington Post, ~6 min.)
And just like that, it’s OK for political reporters to ask the 2020 candidates — men included — about their skincare routines. (Politico, ~9 min.)
Plasma-for-profit is big business. In fact, it’s a single family’s big business. (Bloomberg, ~5 min)
The oldest woman who ever lived died at 122. But was it really her, or was she a fraud? (New Yorker, ~43 min.)
Once upon a time, the city manager of Lafayette, Calif., thought he could forge a compromise between a big developer and the NIMBY citizens of his small Bay Area town. Then reality threw him a curve ball. (New York Times, ~15 min.)
C-SPAN’s off-the-wall live call-in show is celebrating 40 years. Here’s how it’s lasted all this time. (Vox, ~18 min.)
James Morrison and Hilaree Nelson had each lost so much. Then they found each other, and decided to test their new relationship by becoming the first people to hike up, then ski down, Lhotse, in the shadow of Everest. (Sports Illustrated, ~23 min.)
White-collar crime is thriving — in fact, there’s never been a better time to launder money, hide corporate profits in offshore tax havens, or defraud the American consumer. This piece is stunning. (HuffPost Highline, ~31 min.)
What it’s like to work as an International Pizza Consultant. (The Goods, ~9 min.)
Tracy Walder was a sorority girl at USC who thought she’d become a teacher after graduation. Instead, she became a spy for the CIA. (D Magazine, ~12 min.)
If you know someone who’d like this, send it their way. You can find the online, shareable version (and subscribe) here. For additional stories that don’t make it into the newsletter, you can follow The News Gal on Twitter here, on Facebook here, on Pocket here, and on LinkedIn here. Questions, comments, concerns, and story tips are always welcome — just hit reply.