The Air Mail Archive: Every weekly issue

Issue No. 188

February 18, 2023

Blood Lust

From Moscow, Idaho, Nancy Jo Sales reveals how the behavior of Bryan Kohberger, the alleged murderer of four university students, is straight out of the incel playbook

Proceed with Caution!

From Mar-a-Lago, AIR MAIL unearths MAGAzine, the latest Trump venture

First in Class

From Arkansas, Legs McNeil presents an oral history of the Little Rock Nine, the first Black students to integrate an intensely racist, whites-only high school

Issue No. 187

February 11, 2023

Cyber-Stalking

From Moscow, Idaho, Howard Blum goes inside the grassroots social-media efforts that filled in the gaps of the police investigation into the murders of four university students

Trickling Down

From New York, Charles Leerhsen details the unraveling of Jeffrey Sachs, once “the most important economist in the world,” now a peddler of pro-Russian propaganda and coronavirus conspiracies

Sweating the Details

From London, Stuart Heritage goggles at the new movie based on Prince Andrew’s disastrous BBC interview—He can’t sweat! He was never there!—that stars a slumming Gillian Anderson and Rufus Sewell

Issue No. 186

February 4, 2023

Armie of One

In his first interview since accusations of violence, rape, and cannibalism destroyed his acting career, Armie Hammer speaks out

French Exit

From the Élysée Palace, Alexandra Marshall charts the public disappearance of First Lady Brigitte Macron, who once fascinated the French but, thanks to a media misstep, appears to have lost her luster

Art Fief

From Hong Kong, Alexandra Bregman pulls back the veil on Rosalie Wong, the mysterious art dealer, and paramour, to China’s billionaire elite

Issue No. 185

January 28, 2023

Chasing the Devil

From Idaho, Howard Blum delves into the bleak mind of Bryan Kohberger, the alleged murderer of four University of Idaho students, and reveals exactly how the F.B.I. hunted him down

Rogue’s Return

From the House of Commons, Stuart Heritage stacks up Boris Johnson’s latest financial scandals and his attempts to burnish his image by visiting Ukraine—at taxpayers’ expense

FOMO, Jet-Set Style

From the private jet, Elena Clavarino charts the absurd lengths—and outrageous expense—to which the young and privileged will go to for a party

Issue No. 184

January 21, 2023

Sight Unseen

From Berlin, Joseph Bullmore reports on the fall from grace of Johann König, the celebrated “blind gallerist,” who fell foul of #MeToo allegations but might be the victim of a bizarre plot

Witness for the Prosecution

From the writing desk, filmmaker Errol Morris dives between the lines of journalist Janet Malcolm, who wrestled with the slipperiness of truth and her own motivations

The Game of Hockney

From London, William Boyd sits down with David Hockney, who is equally busy puffing cigarettes and setting up a sprawling immersive exhibition

Issue No. 183

January 14, 2023

Body Count

From Connecticut, Rich Cohen recounts the story of Richard Dabate, who murdered his wife but was tripped up by her fitness tracker

Bohemian Strife

From the artist’s studio, Ivana Lowell recalls the tempestuous marriage that her mother, Lady Caroline Blackwood, had with the then struggling—but occasionally monstrous—Lucian Freud

Fire Sail

From the high seas, Mark Ellwood plumbs the depths of the used-luxury-yacht market, and finds bargains are on offer—if you’re willing to overlook the previous owners

Issue No. 182

January 7, 2023

In Cold, Cold Blood

From Idaho, Howard Blum details the gruesome murder of four students in a bucolic college town, and reveals the police’s grassroots approach to finding a suspect

Spare Parts

Fisticuffs with Will! Psychic chats with Diana! A frostbitten penis! From the U.K., Stuart Heritage picks his way through the revelations from Prince Harry’s grievance-fest of a memoir

Geek Freak-Out

From Silicon Valley, Adam Lashinsky tells of bad vibes among the tech bros as free lunches—and toilet paper!—disappear and kombucha taps run dry

Issue No. 181

December 31, 2022

Nuclear Winter

From the bunker, Rebecca John explores the safeguards that are in place to prevent a president—especially one with short fingers—from pushing the big red button

Facing the Music

From the living room, Tim Page explains why you should be ringing in the New Year with Bach

Your Loss is Their Gain

From Turkey, Max Berlinger reports on a new trend among balding men—traveling to Istanbul for hair transplants—and the cottage industry taking root there

Issue No. 180

December 24, 2022

Rock of Ages

From Ukraine, Bernard-Henri Lévy tells of “Slava,” the rock star who sings to the troops in the trenches and embodies the fierce determination of the whole country

Not Your Average Nose Job

Linda Wells, AIR MAIL’s beauty-and-wellness columnist, takes a whiff of the custom fragrances being designed for the super-rich that can easily top $100,000

Home Alone

From New York, James Wolcott celebrates the melancholy beauty of spending Christmas by oneself in the city

Issue No. 179

December 17, 2022

It’s Their Party …

… and they’ll splurge if they want to. From millennial land, Lynn Q. Yu reports on how the extravagant 30th-birthday blowout is the new wedding

Liberté, Égalité … Électricité?

From France, Alexandra Marshall explains how the French are freaking out at the prospect of blackouts—but at least the chairlifts at the ski resorts are running

Colleagues Actually

From London, Tobias Grey interviews the Nobel Prize–winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro about his hotly anticipated foray into screenwriting and working with Bill Nighy

Issue No. 178

December 10, 2022

Holiday Gratings

From the hearth, Larry David delivers a typically improper end-of-year letter, complete with drunken children, unlicensed midwifery, dementia party games, and spousal bondage

Too Much, Too Often

From the editors of this fine journal, our first weekly Attention-Whore Index of people you’re sick of, but who can’t get enough of you!

Barrels of Vintage Whine

From their epic grievance tour, Harry and Meghan go full Putin on his family and their staff

Issue No. 177

December 3, 2022

Model Behavior

From the catwalk, Michael Gross tells how Kate Moss went from bad-girl supermodel to the head of her own talent agency, with a roll call of superstar spawn that includes Keith Richards’s granddaughter

Parental Misguidance

From the courtroom, David Kaufman reports on the claims that former N.B.A. star Dwyane Wade is pressuring his trans daughter to undergo gender-affirming surgery to increase her corporate endorsements

Eating Their Words

From New York, a restaurant maître d’ serves up the tricks he used to sweeten the city’s toughest critics

Issue No. 176

November 26, 2022

Abandoned State

From Moscow, Katya V. speaks of the souring Russian mood, the flood of compatriots crossing the border, abandoned apartments, and the endless farewell parties

Serving the Mob

From New York City, Michael Cecchi-Azzolina, the former maître d’ of the River Café, reveals how to prevent getting whacked after accidentally disrespecting one of John Gotti’s hit men

Fake Smiles

From Beverly Hills, Michele McPhee details a widespread fraud scheme involving top N.B.A. players, dodgy dentists, and dozens of phony root canals

Issue No. 175

November 19, 2022

Special Issue

INTRODUCING AIR MAIL’S FIRST-EVER SPECIAL ISSUE …

The Downtown Set

THE DOWNTOWN SET: OUR LIST OF THE 50 YOUNG NEW YORKERS SHAPING THE SCENE

Yoko Before John

LEGS MCNEIL’S INSIDE LOOK AT YOKO ONO’S EARLY YEARS

Issue No. 174

November 12, 2022

Field of Schemes

From the sidelines, Stuart Heritage reports on bribes, spies, David Beckham, and foul play in the calamitous buildup to this year’s World Cup, in Qatar

Easy Riders

From Hollywood, Jeanine Basinger and Sam Wasson reveal how Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, and a cheap biker movie changed the film industry forever

Inspector Gadget

From the AIR MAIL test lab, a milk frother that spits out the perfect hot cocoa, and more from our tech-and-gear expert, Jonathan Margolis

Issue No. 173

November 5, 2022

Breaking the Sound Barrier

From Hollywood, Sam Wasson and Jeanine Basinger look at how a then new technology—sound!—disrupted the status quo and created the studio system

Her Back Pages

From the U.K., Stuart Heritage reports on a disastrously timed—yet altogether revealing—new history on the blink-and-you-missed-it prime ministership of Liz Truss

Weight Watchers

Linda Wells, Air Mail’s beauty-and-wellness columnist, reports on the latest craze in weight management—tough-love coaches who draw up fitness game plans for wealthy clients

Issue No. 172

October 29, 2022

Horribli Familia

With the bombshell book The Courtiers and the new season of The Crown about to start, Stuart Heritage lays out the scandals, gripes, and problems with the world’s most well-known family

Fawlty Tower

From New York City, William D. Cohan reports on why Ty Warner, the billionaire creator of Beanie Babies, has Bill Gates fuming over his refusal to open the still-shuttered Four Seasons Hotel

Knife in the Pages

From France, Alexandra Marshall details the surprising and mystifying claims made by Emmanuelle Seigner, the wife of Roman Polanski, in her new book

Issue No. 171

October 22, 2022

10 Downing and Out in London

From the U.K., Stuart Heritage considers the smoldering wreckage of a former prime minister (and possible kink freak?!) known as Liz Truss

The Whole Earth Catalogue

On the 50th anniversary of its publication, Cullen Murphy revisits The Limits to Growth, the bracing environmental best-seller that changed the way we think about our planet

Getting Crafty

From the fashion world, Harling Ross Anton reports on how the Etsy aesthetic of knitting and crocheting has become this fall’s big style trend

Issue No. 170

October 15, 2022

Playing Doctor

From the digital domain, Eleanor Cummins reveals how TikTok videos about a thyroid disorder turned an obscure disease into a hot brand

Throw The Book at Him!

From New York, Michael Oreskes reports on new memoirs by former Trump associates detailing the shocking extent of the embattled former president’s destructiveness

10 Downer Street

As British P.M. Liz Truss sets out on a “charm offensive” to hold on to her job, Stuart Heritage points out that it’s tough to be charming when personality (or basic economics) is not one of your strong suits

Issue No. 169

October 8, 2022

Sexual Misconduct

From London, Flora Gill skewers the pathetic (and entirely unsurprising) cheating of sanctimonious, self-professed “wife guys,” such as Adam Levine

Grifter in Chief

From Washington, James Kirchick reports on the revelations in Confidence Man, Maggie Haberman’s highly anticipated biography of Donald Trump

Misrule, Britannia!

From the U.K., a gobsmacked Stuart Heritage tallies the wreckage wrought by an all-too-clueless Liz Truss in her first 30 days as prime minister

Issue No. 168

October 1, 2022

Kitchen Confidential

From France, Charles Leerhsen retraces Anthony Bourdain’s final, heartbreaking steps

Sisterhood of the Traveling Brownshirts

As neo-Fascist Georgia Meloni celebrates in Italy, George Pendle shows us how European women have seized control of far-right political parties to give their old ugliness a fuzzy legitimacy

The Revolution This Time?

As protests grip Iran, Hooman Majd reveals how the long shadow of the Shah’s fall haunts the ayatollahs

Issue No. 167

September 24, 2022

Desert Storm

From Riyadh, Eve Peyser reveals how social-media stars help the Saudi kingdom be seen as the new hot spot—and not the home of a regime that beheads journalists

Ah, Wilderness!

From Ucross, Judith Newman reveals what exactly goes on at a renowned artists’ retreat

Twitter for Twits

From the social network, Chris McGreal reports on how Trump’s alternative to Twitter is on the brink of becoming another one of his business failures.

Issue No. 166

September 17, 2022

Hoop Schemes

From Russia, Andrew Ryvkin reveals the backstory behind Putin’s possible swap of basketball superstar Brittney Griner for an ex-K.G.B. arms merchant

War and Remembrance

From the editing room, Ken Burns documents America’s role in the Holocaust, and how decisions made then still reverberate in today’s debates on immigration

Moscow on the Thames

From Westminster, Paul Caruana Galizia investigates the rise of the son of a former K.G.B. officer to Britain’s House of Lords

Issue No. 165

September 10, 2022

Portraits of a Lady

From London, George Pendle details how Cecil Beaton’s carefully composed photographs of Queen Elizabeth II played a crucial role in creating the image—and our memories—of the monarch

Scandal

From France, John von Sothen details the twisted crime that riveted the country: a retired business executive who had molested his daughter and granddaughter, and then murdered the therapist who was set to expose his sexual abuse

Red Skies Ahead

From the cockpit, Sam Kashner recounts the cloak-and-dagger Cold War maneuverings that allowed the U.S.S.R. to create the “Concordski,” a Soviet-era version of the Concorde

Issue No. 164

September 3, 2022

When Kush Comes to Shove

From the reading room, Alessandra Stanley contrasts Jared Kushner’s memoir with that of Mussolini’s son-in-law, and finds it, well, wanting

Man on the Run

From France, Michael Bronner takes us on the hunt for one of the most accomplished grifters in memory: Robert Freegard, the brainwashing genius and fascinating subject of his film Rogue Agent

Tunnel Vision

From London, biographer Tom Bower traces the final, tragic hours of Princess Diana

Issue No. 163

August 27, 2022

And the Beat Goes On

From the recovery room, William D. Cohan recounts the close call he had with his heart, and how a chance test from his doctor saved his life

Mind Games

From the director’s chair, Errol Morris looks at the HBO show The Rehearsal and asks whether Nathan Fielder’s players are willing participants or in fact subjects in an elaborate behavioral experiment

Goblets of Fire

From London, George Kalogerakis reports on the literary left’s campaign to silence and intimidate free-speech advocate J. K. Rowling

Issue No. 162

August 20, 2022

Heading for the Exits

With Trumpism growing ever more rabid and radical, Buzz Bissinger asks if it is, sadly, finally time to leave America

Factory Worker

From New York, Lili Anolik sits down with the sister of Andy Warhol’s muse, Edie Sedgwick, for a riveting conversation about what really happened between the superstar and the artist

Letter Bombs

From Ukraine, Robert Cooper and Will Cathcart meet the tech entrepreneurs who will drop your personalized missile on Russian troops—and film their destruction