The Air Mail Archive: Every weekly issue

Issue No. 349

March 21, 2026

KNIVES OUT

Chefs Liz Johnson and Will Aghajanian met at Noma, fell in love, and opened Horses, the buzzy L.A. restaurant, before allegations of emotional, physical, and feline abuse took them down. Now Aghajanian breaks his silence

SLIDING DOORS, PRINCE ANDREW EDITION

Former Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal imagines a world in which Charles died alongside Diana, and Andrew became King, dismissed his Epstein ties as deepfakes, and triggered Trump’s impeachment. (We don’t hate it!)

HANNAH MONTANA HAS A COLD

After Miley Cyrus refused to speak to her, Carolina de Armas sought out the pop star’s inner circle to talk about Hannah Montana, the Disney show that launched Cyrus to worldwide fame and is celebrating its 20th anniversary

Issue No. 348

March 14, 2026

HAMPTONS AGONISTES

An equestrienne heiress has plans to build a giant horse complex—manure pit included!—in tony Bridgehampton, and NIMBY locals are kicking up a stink, reports Ashley Baker

BATTLE CRY

Chris Terrio, the Oscar-winning Argo screenwriter, warns that any lessons that could have been learned from past Middle East conflicts have been ignored in Trump’s rush to war

DOWN WITH THE CROWN!

Jacob Furedi interviews the man responsible for the former Prince Andrew’s arrest—a fringe anti-royalist who has been trying to topple the British monarchy for decades

Issue No. 347

March 7, 2026

FALL OF THE HOUSE OF BARCLAY

Joseph Bullmore chronicles the bitter Barclay family feud that makes Succession look like Modern Family as the once billionaire owners of the newly sold Telegraph and London’s Ritz face bankruptcy

THE MAN WHO WOULD BE AYATOLLAH

Elaine Sciolino recalls her 1982 meeting with the angry young mullah who would become the Ayatollah Khamenei, and what it revealed about the ruthless dictator, who was killed after four decades ruling Iran

A ROYAL COLD SHOULDER

Despite siding with King Charles and Prince William against their scandal-tainted parents, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie have been pushed to the margins of royal life. Might they find refuge in Montecito?

Issue No. 346

February 28, 2026

ROYAL PAIN IN THE NECK

Sarah Ferguson is renowned for her spendthrift ways, inappropriate behavior, and penchant for toe-sucking. No wonder she once described her ex-husband as “my perfect man and soulmate”

THE FOG OF WAR

As nuclear tensions rise, Errol Morris explores what might have been going through Truman’s head when the U.S. dropped the atomic bombs, and the terrifying logic behind world-changing decisions

FAUX HORSES

Cloned super-ponies are all the rage in polo, says Mark Ellwood, but lawsuits, controversial “gene doping,” and a tragic suicide have begun to expose the seamy underbelly of the sport of kings

Issue No. 345

February 21, 2026

HIS ROYAL AWFULNESS

Andrew is the first royal in four centuries to be arrested—on his birthday, no less—following his starring role in the Epstein scandal. His fall from grace was a long time coming

BACK TO THE FUTURE

With its depiction of a world paralyzed by screens and a former entertainer as president, David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, which turns 30 this year, has never felt more prescient

OH, BROTHER!

The latest Andrew mess has brought Charles III face-to-face with one of the gravest crises in modern royal history—and that’s saying a lot. Could it spell the end for the King?

Issue No. 344

February 14, 2026

A BRUSH WITH DEATH

Amateur art sleuths are convinced that Vincent van Gogh didn’t commit suicide, but, rather, was murdered, writes Bianca Bosker. It’s what one Van Gogh truther is calling “the art world’s biggest cold-case homicide and cover-up”

HARD-PRESSED

In the aftermath of the Washington Post layoffs, the Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter James B. Steele makes an urgent case for his craft in the age of Trump and his incessant attacks on the press—and the truth

THE WAY THEY WERE

Carolyn Bessette and John F. Kennedy Jr. weren’t just American royalty and tabloid bait, they were “multi-dimensional people” who fell in love, says Connor Hines, the creator of the new Ryan Murphy mini-series

Issue No. 343

February 7, 2026

IN THE DOGHOUSE

“This is a disagreement about creative expression”: Carolina de Armas reports on the copyright-infringement battle pitching high-fashion bible Vogue against scrappy Beverly Hills canine-style magazine Dogue and its dog-loving owner

MAD ABOUT THE BUNNY

Jon Hamm, the Emmy Award–winning Mad Men actor and Bad Bunny super-fan, offers his spirited defense of the Puerto Rican rapper ahead of his Super Bowl halftime show and condemns the conservative backlash it has sparked

YOU’VE GOT MAIL!

Stuart Heritage unpacks the legendary New York publicist Peggy Siegal’s pen-pal relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, from curating the guest list for his Yom Kippur party to spying on the “rich and richer” of St. Barth’s

Issue No. 342

January 31, 2026

BONFIRE OF THE MURDOCHS

Rupert Murdoch’s tabloids and succession dramas have poisoned and preoccupied public discourse across the world, writes Gabriel Sherman. He is also a throwback to an era of press barons that is fast disappearing

APOCALYPSE SNOW

The next casualty of global warming may be the Winter Olympics, says Elena Clavarino, with Cortina d’Ampezzo in a tizzy over the lack of snowfall (and Milan bracing for a different kind of ICE storm)

MEET THE PARENTS

“An old bully”: David and Victoria Beckham have met their match in Nelson Peltz, their son’s billionaire father-in-law, whose money, power, and ruthlessness put Brooklyn’s Brit-pop-royalty parents to shame

Issue No. 341

January 24, 2026

IT TAKES TWO

Following Bryan Kohberger’s guilty plea—guaranteeing life in prison with no chance of parole—Howard Blum suggests the murderer of four Idaho college students might have had an accomplice

REQUIEM FOR A NIGHTMARE

As the investigation into the Crans-Montana nightclub fire continues, Elena Clavarino reveals the lethal cocktail of European teenagedom and institutional shortcomings that ignited the disaster

BONFIRE OF THE BECKHAMS

Stuart Heritage unravels the gnarly, endlessly entertaining Beckham-family affair, in which nepo babies Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz have faced off against his soccer-star dad and Spice Girl mom

Issue No. 340

January 17, 2026

MIAMI VICES

Eric Barton goes inside the battle for Nikki Beach, a prime Miami oceanfront property which has seen the New York restaurateur Mario Carbone lock horns with disgruntled locals amid bribery allegations

WAR AND PEACE

They helped ignite revolutions in Iran and Venezuela—and won the Nobel for it. Now, as their countries unravel, Narges Mohammadi and María Corina Machado are struggling to be heard, reports Jennifer Gould

FRENCH KISS-OFF

Elaine Sciolino chronicles the precipitous fall of Laurence des Cars, the Louvre’s first female director, following an overreaching building revamp, debilitating staff strikes, and that jewel heist

Issue No. 339

January 10, 2026

IVY SIEG

Evgenia Peretz reports on how the storied Harvard Republican Club and Harvard Salient, once bastions of traditional conservative values, have been taken over by racist and sexist “Groypers who use big words”

SLAP THAT BASE

Puerto Rico’s military bases have been shuttered for years. Now, following Maduro’s capture, they’re busier than ever before—and the locals aren’t happy, according to Carolina de Armas

NORWEGIAN WOOD

Erin Somers reveals why all the literary men—plus the actor Jeremy Strong—are in love with the hyper-personal, minutely detailed, very, very long books of Norse stud muffin Karl Ove Knausgaard

Issue No. 338

January 3, 2026

THE ODD COUPLE

David Margolick reveals how hustler-producer Lawrence Schiller battled and bonded with Norman Mailer to create a Marilyn Monroe biography, in part two of our series

ONE FOR THE MONEY

If the 60s were Swinging, what are the 2020s? Helen Schulman argues we’re in the Smash-and-Grab Decade, driven by brazen power grabs and public acquiescence

SEE YOU IN COURT

When screenwriter Michael Elias found himself playing tennis with fugitive from justice Abbie Hoffman, Hollywood superficiality collided with firebrand radicalism

Issue No. 337

December 27, 2025

THE ORIGINAL ZELIG

Larry Schiller was a hustler extraordinaire. But it was his role as Norman Mailer’s collaborator and irritant, as David Margolick reveals, that led to the Pulitzer-winning The Executioner’s Song

STUCK ON STUPID

On average, Americans are becoming more stupid. Stuart Jeffries examines the possible reasons—be it TikTok brain rot or the theory that the less bright are reproducing fastest

ROTHSCHILD VS. ROTHSCHILD

Two baronesses are battling over a château in Switzerland referred to as a “mini Louvre,” brimming with priceless paintings and antique furniture

Issue No. 336

December 20, 2025

A MATCH MADE IN MAGA HEAVEN

George Pendle reveals how Candace Owens and her aristocratic English husband, George Farmer, have fused Catholic traditionalism and online provocation

THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Ho ho … uh-oh! Calling all children: What with the toy tariffs, elf deportations, and risk of being targeted as a drug smuggler, Santa Claus isn’t feeling too jolly this year

THE MAN WITH THE IRON EGO

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy may have spent only 20 days in prison, but his memoir of his time behind bars is fueling a wave of “Sarkomania”

Issue No. 335

December 13, 2025

BLACK BOOKS

Johanna Berkman dives into an alleged “compliance scandal of astonishing proportions” linking Leon Black to Jeffrey Epstein, and the confidential trove of files Scott Bessent refuses to release

DOWN FOR THE RECOUNT

Twenty-five years on, Jeffrey Toobin revisits Bush v. Gore and reveals how the infamous “Brooks Brothers riot” laid the blueprint for the January 6 attack on the Capitol

ARCADE DE TRIOMPHE

Ash Carter chronicles how Dick and Jeannette Seaver transformed a mutual love of Beckett into Arcade, a publisher on the front lines of the counterculture

Issue No. 334

December 6, 2025

GIRL, INTERRUPTED

As the pile-on against Olivia Nuzzi reaches a fever pitch, Three Women author Lisa Taddeo asks why we’re so quick to lynch women while the men keep flying free

CRÈME DE LA KREMLIN

How Putin led the last Soviet generation—raised on a failing empire, emptied of belief, and craving Western comforts—to transform their cynicism into Russia’s ruling creed

LORD OF THE LINES

Jailed for smuggling 400 tons of cocaine, a Honduran president now walks free after a Trump pardon. Is this repayment from the crypto bros whose island haven he enabled?

Issue No. 333

November 29, 2025

CRUEL INTENTIONS

Thirty years after Diana’s bombshell BBC interview, in which she confessed to having had multiple affairs, Andy Webb reveals the true extent of the Princess’s manipulation into participating

FALSE FLAGS

From MAGA rallies in the U.S. to England’s Operation Raise the Colours, flags have become a cultural fault line, with one side believing them patriotic and the other xenophobic. Flora Gill reports

THE FLIGHT OF THE CONCORDE

Former Concorde crew members recall the jet’s golden age—when it ferried the Queen and Prince around the world—and the crash that marked the beginning of the end

Issue No. 332

November 22, 2025

CULT FOLLOWING

OneTaste, a wellness start-up beloved of Gwyneth Paltrow, promised to revolutionize people’s sex lives. Instead, it became a coercive cult, the disturbing extent to which is only now coming to light

SUE UNTO OTHERS …

What do the BBC and Miss Pennsylvania have in common? They—and countless others—have been sued for defamation by Trump. We measure his exorbitant claims against their modest outcomes

THE BEARER OF BAD NUZZI

Olivia Nuzzi’s R.F.K. Jr. sexts were just the tip of a very large iceberg. Stuart Heritage unpacks the scandal that has taken the media world by storm—alleged affairs, a scorned ex, and all

Issue No. 331

November 15, 2025

OF VICE AND MEN

Former MTV C.E.O. Tom Freston recalls the tequila-fueled night Vice’s Shane Smith pitched him on “programming by drunks to amuse stoners”—and the wild ride that followed

TWO-PIECE DE RESISTANCE

The unlikely story of how the itsy-bitsy bikini helped topple Franco’s Fascist regime in Spain (yes, you read that right), 50 years ago next week

REDDIT AND WEEP

Alexis Ohanian—Mr. Serena Williams—helped build Reddit into an Internet superpower. He explains why he walked away, sacrificing billions in the process

Issue No. 330

November 8, 2025

THE CALABRIAN JOB

How Italian prosecutor Nicola Gratteri is taking on the ’Ndrangheta—the most powerful and dangerous organized-crime group in the world—one mobster at a time

START THE PRESSES!

In an age of pixels, swipes, and shrinking attention spans, Harper’s Magazine president John MacArthur remains committed to print—not as a romantic notion but as a patriotic duty

THE BROOKLYN FOLLIES

All of David Beckham’s children gathered to celebrate his knighthood this week—save for the prodigal son, Brooklyn, who is rumored to be at odds with his family

Issue No. 329

November 1, 2025

WHO’S AFRAID OF MICHAEL WOLFF?

Melania Trump is going head-to-head with the Fire and Fury author over Jeffrey Epstein—and the fallout has been spectacular to behold, reports Stuart Heritage

FROM OUR FOUNDERS

Co-Editors Graydon Carter and Alessandra Stanley look back at the six momentous years since launching AIR MAIL from a charming office in Greenwich Village

ESTATE OF EMERGENCY

In a final stripping of royal privileges, the Palace is fittingly relocating Andrew (no longer prince) from his sprawling lodge to a cottage known for its impropriety

Issue No. 328

October 25, 2025

COLD AS ICE

The Trump administration is callously handing over Russian dissidents and army deserters to the very goons they sought to evade in the first place. Alessandra Stanley investigates

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCKIN’ ON HELL’S DOOR

A female DoorDash driver posted a video accusing a client of sexual assault. The Internet went crazy. Stuart Heritage reports from deep in the Reddit threads

VIRGIN TERRITORY

John von Sothen tracks down Giovanni Strazza’s exquisite sculpture rivaling Michelangelo’s Pietà and Rodin’s Balzac to a Canadian convent that could pass for a D.M.V

Issue No. 327

October 18, 2025

SILENCE IS DEADLY

As Trump targets higher education, university leaders are retreating into “institutional neutrality”—a high-minded way of saying they’re doing nothing at all, reports Clara Molot

MOTORCYCLE DIARIES

Inside the fight for a $68 million Jackson Pollock painting, which Steve McQueen’s granddaughter says he traded for a motorcycle that was never delivered

RADICAL CHIC

Mark Rozzo revisits Granny Takes a Trip, the Swinging 60s London boutique that dressed everyone from John Lennon and Paul McCartney to Jimi Hendrix

Issue No. 326

October 11, 2025

TROUBLED WATERS

Pop-art pioneer Larry Rivers’s life’s work has landed not at MoMA or the Met but in an obscure gallery in New Jersey—sold off for $300,000 without his son’s knowledge

THE FOG OF BOB

How Errol Morris came to love former secretary of defense Robert McNamara, the subject of his Oscar-winning documentary, The Fog of War—despite opposing Vietnam

RISING FROM THE LASHES

Five years ago, we canceled the girlbosses. Today, millennial She-E.O.’s are on the rise again. Bookslut founder Jessa Crispin explains why their comeback was inevitable

Issue No. 325

October 4, 2025

THE WRITE STUFF

Announcing the winners of our inaugural Tom Wolfe literary prizes for fiction and reportage: Perfection author Vincenzo Latronico and The Catastrophe Hour author Meghan Daum

THE PELICOT BRIEF

The lawyers who represented Gisèle Pelicot in the mass-rape case that rocked France reveal how they found their client—and the challenges they faced in the courtroom

HYDE-ING IN PLAIN SIGHT

In the final installment of our series on the Rockefeller con man, Jonathan Alter reveals how Spiro Pavlovich’s Dr. Jekyll–like charm hid a Mr. Hyde–esque fury

Issue No. 324

September 27, 2025

FAST AND FURIOUS

He saved Fiat. He saved Ferrari. He saved his grandfather Gianni Agnelli’s legacy, with billions to spare. But can John Elkann save his mother from the spectacle of a courtroom cash fight?

BEAT THE SYSTEM

Seventy years after it became a rallying cry for the Beat Generation, Allen Ginsberg’s anti-conformist “Howl” is worth revisiting under the censorious MAGA administration

BAG LADY

Joan Juliet Buck looks back at the dazzling life of Jane Birkin, from the making of her eponymous Hermès bag to the T-shirt-and-jeans uniform she made cool long before Gen Z

Issue No. 323

September 20, 2025

A ROSE BY ANOTHER NAME

He was known as Nick “Rocky” Rockefeller throughout his life. Only after his death did his friends learn to call him what he truly was: a con man. Jonathan Alter reports

Make Britain Great Again

Many in the United Kingdom feel that, by hosting Trump for yet another state visit this past week, the royal family has been pimping itself out in an all too Epstein-like manner

BREW-BLOODED

Joseph Bullmore unravels the Guinness dynasty—and the Kennedy-like curse that has plagued them with premature deaths, freak accidents, and QAnon conspiracies