Cover art for podcast Esquire Classic Podcast

Esquire Classic Podcast

45 EpisodesProduced by PRX and Esquire MagazineWebsite

A timely and revealing update of some of the most groundbreaking narrative journalism ever published by Esquire since its founding in 1933. Presented by PRX and Esquire Magazine.

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Farewell

February 22nd, 2024

0:39

An important message from RadioPublic

Don’t Mess With Roy Cohn, by Ken Auletta

December 22nd, 2016

26:04

If president-elect Donald Trump learned anything from his mentor Roy Cohn, it was this: punch first and never apologize. Cohn was notorious for going …

The Plane at the Bottom of the Ocean, by Bucky McMahon

December 13th, 2016

26:26

The question is astonishingly simple: In the year 2015, with GPS and satellites and global surveillance everywhere all the time, how does a massive airplane simply go missing? To find the answer, writer Bucky McMahon …

The Price of Being President, by Richard Ben Cramer

December 6th, 2016

23:50

Published in 1992, Richard Ben Cramer’s What It Takes: The Way to the White House remains the richest and most unvarnished account of the personal price of running for president. The irony, as Cramer pointed out to …

The Old Man and the River, by Pete Dexter

November 28th, 2016

22:39

Norman Maclean published A River Runs Through It when he was seventy-three, and only after his children implored him to write down the stories about …

The Days of Wine and Pig Hocks, by Jim Harrison

November 21st, 2016

24:08

Jim Harrison, the novelist and poet who died earlier this year at the age of 78, had a gargantuan, fearless appetite that would make both A.J. …

Martin Luther King Jr Is Still on the Case! by Garry Wills

November 14th, 2016

30:16

In 1968, just hours after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, the future Pulitzer Prize–winning author Garry Wills—then a young writer for …

Love in the Time of Magic, by E. Jean Carroll

November 7th, 2016

29:23

On November 7, 1991, Magic Johnson held a press conference announcing that he had contracted the HIV virus, effectively ending his Hall of Fame career with the Los Angeles Lakers. The news sent shockwaves through …

The Tinkerings of Robert Noyce, by Tom Wolfe

October 31st, 2016

25:41

It was a meeting of two American masters: Robert Noyce, who, in inventing the integrated computer chip and founding Intel, willed Silicon Valley into …

The House That Thurman Munson Built, by Michael Paterniti

October 24th, 2016

26:41

Reggie Jackson once called himself “the straw that stirs the drink” but there was no question that Thurman Munson was the pride of the Yankees—like Lou Gehrig before him and Derek Jeter after. For Michael Paterniti, …

The Crack-Up, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

October 17th, 2016

33:09

In 1936, F. Scott Fitzgerald, then a struggling writer battling depression and alcoholism, published “The Crack-Up,” a radical series of essays in …

The Brain That Changed Everything, by Luke Dittrich

October 10th, 2016

34:41

In 1953, a twenty-seven-year old factory worker named Henry Molaison, cursed with severe epilepsy, underwent a radical new version of the lobotomy …

“I, Stalkerazzi” and “Angelina Jolie and the Torture of Fame,” by John H. Richardson

October 3rd, 2016

27:39

It’s hard to think of a profession more maligned than the paparazzi, but in 1998 Esquire writer at large John H. Richardson decided to find out for himself what it feels like to hunt celebrities for money in “I, …

Nureyev Dancing In His Own Shadow, by Elizabeth Kaye

September 26th, 2016

28:38

Rudolf Nureyev was one of the most dynamic performers of the twentieth century. “He was Mick Jagger before Mick Jagger,” remembers Elizabeth Kaye, …

Frank Sinatra Has a Cold, by Gay Talese

September 19th, 2016

31:58

Fifty years after it was first published, “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” remains the most influential and talked-about magazine story of all time. Author …

Styron’s Choices, by Philip Caputo

September 12th, 2016

25:01

When journalist Philip Caputo set out to profile William Styron in 1985, it was something of a dream assignment: Styron, then at work on the novel The Way of the Warrior, was one of the towering figures in American …

The Falling Man, by Tom Junod

September 6th, 2016

33:55

Do you remember this photograph? In the United States, people have taken pains to banish it from the record of September 11, 2001. The story behind it, though, and the search for the man pictured in it, are our most …

The American Male at Age Ten, by Susan Orlean

August 29th, 2016

26:32

In 1992, writer Susan Orlean was sick of celebrity profiles. Instead, she wanted to do something bigger and much harder: She wanted to profile the inner life of an average American boy. After convincing her editor, …

My Father, the Bachelor, by Martha Sherrill

August 22nd, 2016

28:43

Martha Sherrill’s father, Peter, rakish and handsome, was an irrepressible charmer and natural raconteur; when he died, she was flooded with calls from his ex-girlfriends who wanted to pay their respects and share their …

A Few Words About Breasts, by Nora Ephron

August 15th, 2016

41:46

“A Few Words About Breasts,” from May 1972, is Nora Ephron’s comic lament about how her late onset of puberty and earliest sexual experiences gave her a lifelong obsession with her breasts. Jessi Klein, head writer for …

Edwin Moses, by Mark Kram

August 8th, 2016

25:37

Between 1977 and 1987, Edwin Moses won 122 consecutive races in the men’s 400-meter hurdles—including his second Olympic gold—in a streak as …

What It Takes, by Richard Ben Cramer

August 1st, 2016

24:48

Published in 1992, Richard Ben Cramer’s book What It Takes remains the richest and most detailed account of the personal price of running for president. The irony, as Cramer pointed out to C-SPANN when the book was …

My Father’s Life, by Raymond Carver

July 25th, 2016

26:36

In Raymond Carver’s masterful short stories, what goes unspoken between characters—what can’t or won’t be articulated—carries more weight than what …

Superman Comes to the Supermarket, by Norman Mailer

July 18th, 2016

25:13

Before anyone foresaw a time when a television celebrity could become president—hello, Cleveland—Norman Mailer wrote in Esquire that John F. Kennedy …

America’s Most Powerful Lunch, by Lee Eisenberg

July 11th, 2016

22:11

For two decades, the Four Seasons was the epicenter of culture in America. Jackie Onassis, Henry Kissinger, and Nora Ephron were just some of the …

Michael Bay, by Jeanne Marie Laskas

June 27th, 2016

20:04

In 2001, director Michael Bay was one of Hollywood’s most successful commercial filmmakers when he took on the daunting task of directing an epic …

The Old Man and the River, by Pete Dexter

June 13th, 2016

22:50

Norman Maclean published A River Runs Through It when he was seventy-three, and only after his children implored him to write down the stories about …

“I, Stalkerazzi” and “Angelina Jolie and the Torture of Fame,” by John H. Richardson

May 31st, 2016

27:24

It’s hard to find a profession more maligned than the paparazzi, but in 1998 Esquire writer at large John H. Richardson decided to find out for himself what it feels like to hunt celebrities for money in “I, …

The Shooter, by Phil Bronstein

May 16th, 2016

23:47

In March 2013, the man who shot and killed Osama bin Laden came forward to tell his story for the first time in “The Shooter,” by Phil Bronstein. It is a report of the celebrated mission by turns captivating, …

The Plane at the Bottom of the Ocean, by Bucky McMahon

May 2nd, 2016

26:27

The question is astonishingly simple: In the year 2015, with GPS and satellites and global surveillance everywhere all the time, how does a massive airplane simply go missing? To find the answer, writer Bucky McMahon …

What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now? by Richard Ben Cramer

April 18th, 2016

27:32

Richard Ben Cramer’s masterful profile of Ted Williams from 1986 is often cited as one of the greatest magazine stories of all time. It’s about a …

Old, by Mike Sager

April 4th, 2016

29:12

We will all get old one day. Mike Sager’s astonishingly intimate portrait of Glenn Sandberg, age ninety-two, is about what it actually feels like to …

The String Theory, by David Foster Wallace

March 21st, 2016

29:09

David Foster Wallace’s unforgettable portrait of tennis player Michael Joyce is as much about the intricate physics of hitting a fuzzy yellow ball, as it is about the physical and emotional sacrifices it takes to be the …

The American Male at Age Ten, by Susan Orlean

March 7th, 2016

27:00

In 1992, writer Susan Orlean was tired of celebrity profiles. Instead, she wanted to do something bigger, deeper, and much harder: She wanted to profile the inner life of an average American boy. After convincing her …

The Price of Being President, by Richard Ben Cramer

February 22nd, 2016

25:08

Published in 1991, Richard Ben Cramer’s book What It Takes remains the richest and most unvarnished account of the personal price of running for president. The irony, as Cramer pointed out to C-SPANN when the book was …

The Death of Patient Zero, by Tom Junod

February 8th, 2016

30:12

“It was the moment we were waiting for and the moment we dreaded.” So begins “The Death of Patient Zero,” a story that broke all boundaries and preconceptions—about how we attack cancer; how the most advanced medical …

The Tinkerings of Robert Noyce, by Tom Wolfe

January 25th, 2016

25:18

It was a meeting of two American masters: Robert Noyce, who, in inventing the integrated computer chip and founding Intel, willed Silicon Valley into …

Martin Luther King Jr Is Still on the Case! by Garry Wills

January 11th, 2016

29:57

In 1968, just hours after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, the legendary historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Garry Wills—then a young …

M, by John Sack

December 28th, 2015

33:27

“Oh my God—we hit a little girl.” This was the single, shocking cover line of the October 1966 issue of Esquire. Inside was John Sack’s 33,000-word …

The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, by Joe Nocera

December 14th, 2015

26:12

Back in 1986, Joe Nocera spent a week shadowing Steve Jobs, who was then leading his start-up, NeXT, and attempting to build a new kind of computer. …

Superman Comes to the Supermarket, by Norman Mailer

November 30th, 2015

24:38

Before anyone foresaw a time when a television celebrity could become president, Norman Mailer wrote in Esquire that John F. Kennedy was a mythical …

Frank Sinatra Has a Cold, by Gay Talese

November 15th, 2015

32:58

Fifty years after it was first published, “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” remains the most influential and talked about magazine story of all time. …

The Crack-Up, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

November 2nd, 2015

34:17

In 1936, F. Scott Fitzgerald, then a struggling writer battling depression and alcoholism, published a radical series of essays in Esquire about his …

A Few Words About Breasts, by Nora Ephron

October 19th, 2015

44:11

“A Few Words About Breasts” is Nora Ephron’s famous comic lament from 1972 about how her late onset of puberty gave her a lifelong obsession with breasts. Jessi Klein, comedian and head writer for “Inside Amy Schumer,” …

Falling Man, by Tom Junod

October 1st, 2015

35:49

“The Falling Man”, Esquire’s most-read story of all time, is discussed by host David Brancaccio and Esquire Writer at Large Tom Junod. The story is about an infamous photograph from 9/11 that was published briefly in …

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