The Air Mail Archive: Every weekly issue

Issue No. 93

April 24, 2021

After The Gold Rush

Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger recount how Charlie Chaplin’s triumphant return to America to receive an honorary Oscar was planned and executed

The Pen is Mytier than the Sord

Rachel Johnson spells out the inane, woke policing creeping through U.K. institutions and pastimes

Put Another Dime in the Jukebox

Mark Rozzo looks at why Bob Dylan, the Beach Boys, Paul Simon, and more music greats are selling their song catalogues for big money

Issue No. 92

April 17, 2021

Cleaning Up Their Act

Cazzie David suggests nine things Kylie Jenner and other influence peddlers can do, rather than create more garbage

On Thin Ice, Part II

Johanna Berkman digs deeper into the ugly divorce in Trump World that’s turning up the heat on the ex-president

Swipe Far-Left?

Bumble is the trendiest dating app going, worth $8 billion. But Sarah Ditum asks: Is it too woke for its own good?

Issue No. 91

April 10, 2021

On Thin Ice

Johanna Berkman reports on an ugly divorce in Trump World that’s turning up the heat on the ex-president

The View From Here

Douglas McGrath looks at how the party of Reagan devolved into Matt Gaetz’s cynical sex party

Zeros from No. 10

Stuart Heritage on the pitfalls and pratfalls of being a former British prime minister. Especially this week

Issue No. 90

April 3, 2021

Anti–Social Media

Nancy Jo Sales talks to a 16-year-old who has more than five million TikTok followers and a few things to say about the platform

The View From Here

Alessandra Stanley asks why The New York Times is so quick to punish wrong-thinking writers but not actual wrongdoings

The Princess and the Pique

Stuart Heritage pulls back the curtain on the skulduggery behind the BBC’s infamous interview with Diana

Issue No. 89

March 27, 2021

Kitchen Confidential

In New York, Graydon Carter serves up some advice on what mayors must do to get their cities cooking again

Good-bye, Colossus!

Is Philip Roth ripe for a #MeToo assault—despite the fact that he’s been dead for three years?

Putin on the Ritz

The Italian architect behind Vlad’s billion-dollar dacha (complete with stripper pole!) wonders what all the fuss is about

Issue No. 88

March 20, 2021

The Horrors at Home

Sharon Suh on what it feels like to be Asian-American in the age of the coronavirus and post-Trump racial indignities

Change Agent

Twenty-two-year-old Soma Sara took to Instagram to open people’s eyes to the horrifying and growing problem of teen-on-teen sexual assault

Haggis and Haggling

Stuart Heritage unwinds the feud that is roiling Scotland—and that holds the fate of the United Kingdom in the balance

Issue No. 87

March 13, 2021

THE UN-MERRY WIFE OF WINDSOR

As Alessandra Stanley notes, Oprah’s Megha-thon keeps reverberating through the Palace, not to mention left- and right-wing circles

The Orange Velvet Rope

Nimrod Kamer shares six ways to sneak into Trump’s hideous Florida compound (just remember to clap when he enters the dining room)

Space Invader

Jonathan Margolis delves into Elon Musk’s plan to shoot more than 40,000 satellites into orbit

Issue No. 86

March 6, 2021

Knock Three Times

In Paris, Alexander Lobrano tracks down the city’s most illicit new trend: speakeasy restaurants

The First 100 Days

Douglas McGrath has some advice for Joe Biden: Go big or go home

The Royal Soap

In advance of Meghan Markle’s Oprahthon, Stuart Heritage digs through the charges that she fostered a toxic work atmosphere at the Palace

Issue No. 85

February 27, 2021

Class Struggle

William D. Cohan reports on the war raging at Dalton, one of New York’s toniest private schools, as wealthy parents rebel against a “woke” agenda

Gulag Wokeapelago

Andrew Ryvkin shows how Putin is weaponizing cancel culture to muzzle Navalny

No. 1 at No. 10?

Stuart Heritage reveals the details behind Boris Johnson’s latest scandal: reports that his girlfriend is secretly running the British government

Issue No. 84

February 20, 2021

Ruff Trade

Rachel Johnson tries not to step in it as she reports on London’s new, uh, poodemic

Rule, Britney

Lili Anolik looks at how the recent Britney Spears documentary has led to a much-needed re-assessment of how the media mistreated her

Crowning Achievements

As a newly pregnant Meghan Markle decides to, ahem, write books, Craig Brown reminds us we may already know how this story ends

Issue No. 83

February 13, 2021

The Son Also Rises

Alessandra Stanley reminds us that after Trump’s impeachment, take-no-prisoners Republicans will come after Joe Biden, by way of Hunter

Robber Baron

John Preston gets to the mystery surrounding the death of Ghislaine Maxwell’s father, Robert

Sister Act

Princess Diana’s twentysomething nieces are poised to take over British society

Issue No. 82

February 6, 2021

She Persists

Andrew Ryvkin catches up with Yulia Navalnaya, the fearless partner and wife of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny

Mob Rule

Douglas McGrath reminds us that it is government-hater Ronald Reagan who is the true godfather of Trump—and his deadly insurrection at the Capitol

Trick-Tok?

Cazzie David looks at how to succeed in social media without really trying

Issue No. 81

January 30, 2021

Prickly Business

How do hospitals dole out vaccines when it comes to their big-money donors? Alessandra Stanley gives a full examination

The Devil’s in the Details

Is Jared Kushner’s white elephant at 666 Fifth Avenue forever doomed? William D. Cohan takes a look at the books

Razing Hell

John von Sothen reports on the illegally built $69 million Italianate villa in Provence that a French court has ordered torn down

Issue No. 80

January 23, 2021

Over and Out

Graydon Carter looks back at what he got right about Trump, and what he got (ahem) not so right over almost four decades

Plus de Scandale

Alexandra Marshall reports from Paris on yet another sex scandal rocking the echelons of the forever rationalizing French intellectual elite

The Princess Diarrheas

Stuart Heritage examines Sarah Ferguson’s latest scheme to turn some coin—she’s written a (gasp) bodice ripper

Issue No. 79

January 16, 2021

Pomp and Circumspect

Todd S. Purdum reminds us that American presidents have long leaned toward monarchical tendencies—and finds hope in “Amtrak Joe”

Quisling? Moi?

Shawn McCreesh looks at the highly contorted rationalizations outward-bound Trump lickspittles have deployed

Emperor’s Old Clothes?

Aatish Taseer shows that to understand Trump, we need to look at a previous despot, whose motto was “Let him enjoy his corruption, as long as he shows his loyalty!”

Issue No. 78

January 9, 2021

American Carnage

Graydon Carter and Alessandra Stanley look at this week’s Capitol crimes, and one way we can prevent such mayhem in the future

Fire from the Inside

Todd S. Purdum knows the Capitol’s corridors well, and Wednesday’s Trump-driven rampage saddens him

The Murder Route

One year after Fotis Dulos took his own life—still insisting that he had not killed his wife—Rich Cohen retraces that fatal final day

Issue No. 77

January 2, 2021

The Vanishing

Luisita López Torregrosa reports from Miami, where the party goes on, willfully oblivious to the accelerating catastrophe unfolding outside

Under His Skin

Mark Rozzo reveals the story behind “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” Gay Talese’s Esquire profile that made Ol’ Blue Eyes see red, and why it still resonates

Downward Doggone

Emma Freud follows the small but growing herd of people doing yoga with goats

Issue No. 76

December 26, 2020

Annus Horribilis?

2020 may have seemed like it lacked any rhyme or reason, but David Kamp finds plenty of humor in the past 12 months for one poor soul—and delivers a few needed jabs

Bull Market

Patrick Kidd reports on a mystery that has gripped Spain: What became of the armor of one of its greatest matadors after he was killed in the ring?

The Bare Necessities

Lili Anolik delivers a Q&A about T&A. A very revealing look at how one of Hollywood’s raunchiest bombs became a classic

Issue No. 75

December 19, 2020

Sir Woke-a-lot?

As speculation mounts about podcasters Harry and Meghan creating their own New Year’s Day honors, Stuart Heritage proposes more appropriate awards

Repatriate Games

Milton Esterow details the fascinating story behind the repatriation of art-world masterpieces stolen by the Nazis from Jewish families

Auf Wiedersehen!

Speaking of Nazis: George Kalogerakis reveals that 75 years after the end of World War II, Germany is finally cleaning up its language

Issue No. 74

December 12, 2020

Sick Behavior

Holly Peterson reveals the lengths to which the 1-percenters will go in order to jump the line for a coronavirus vaccine

Scandal

Joseph Bullmore reports from London, where the ex-wife of an oil-and-gas oligarch fights to claim a massive $600 million payout

Royal Loser

Henry Alford wonders what Peter Morgan might come up with if he followed The Crown with The Trump

Issue No. 73

December 5, 2020

Trump Agonistes

It’s not Paraguay, but as Graydon Carter explains, Florida will have to do for the last chapter of the departing president’s tawdry saga

Scandal

Joseph Bullmore details the sordid tale of the American tech guru and multi-millionaire jailed in Spain. Why do U.S. authorities want him extradited?

Mean Girls

Shawn McCreesh explains why women in Trump’s world like to betray each other—and how they find justification in Bill Clinton (naturally)

Issue No. 72

November 28, 2020

The Devils Wear Zara

Alessandra Stanley rues the finale of the catcalls on the glittery Trump runway show

Love, Sex, and Madness

Cazzie David reveals her, well, let’s call it “compare-and-contrast infatuation” with her ex’s new girlfriend

The Importance of Being Mank

Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger unearth the fascinating backstory behind the story of Mank, David Fincher’s Oscar-contending film

Issue No. 71

November 21, 2020

House Arrest

Cazzie David confesses what it’s like to have a roommate (Larry David) who hates keys and has no regard for your personal safety

Fashion Victim

Mark Ellwood tracks the darkened runway at Moda Operandi

Collapsing Real Estate

Joseph Bullmore gleefully details how the mansions of London’s rich are falling down—thanks to their slightly insane multi-level basement add-ons

Issue No. 70

November 14, 2020

Sore Loser

Christopher Buckley imagines the concession speech Donald Trump might—might—give

Needle Park

Walter Isaacson details what it is like to be a guinea pig for a coronavirus vaccine—and why he decided to do it

Diana vs. Charles

As The Crown officially enters the Princess of Wales years, Hilary Rose recalls those little-known, all-too-painful early years of Diana’s marriage to Charles

Issue No. 69

November 7, 2020

Cancel Culture

The end of the Apprentice-in-Chief

The Firm

Megan Agnew gives a sneak peek inside the new season of The Crown, which features the arrival of Diana, Margaret Thatcher, and the real Queen’s annus horribilis

Depp Charge and Then Some

Stuart Heritage reports on the ruling in the sordid Johnny Depp–Amber Heard trial, where there are no real winners

Issue No. 68

October 31, 2020

What, We Worry?

Graydon Carter makes it easy for the supporters of Trump and his gang that can’t shoot straight

The Grifters

Before WeWork flushed $2 billion down the toilet, Adam Neumann financed a film starring his wife. Reeves Wiedeman uncovers the bizarre, unseen footage

BBC-U-Later?

Max Hastings questions why Boris Johnson wants to diminish the great British cultural institution that brought us Fleabag, Fawlty Towers, and Blue Planet

Issue No. 67

October 24, 2020

Media Meltdown

William D. Cohan asks how Rupert Murdoch and other Hollywood bigwigs got played by Shane Smith and Vice Media

Cashtaways

Laura Neilson reports on the newest indulgence of 1-percenters: riding out the pandemic by renting a private island

The Firm