The Air Mail Archive: Every weekly issue

Issue No. 104

July 10, 2021

A Plum of an Assignment

Jon Bradshaw was one of the great journalists of the 1970s, and his piece on a swinging New York singles bar is still a masterpiece

The Big Sleazy

George Pendle reports on how New Orleans’s Black, reform-focused district attorney found himself hit with a curiously timed I.R.S. audit

Under the Volcano

Nina Burleigh digs into a fascinating new book about Sicily, that beautiful, mesmerizing, mountainous little dot

Issue No. 103

July 3, 2021

There Were Fireworks

David Kamp reveals how Elizabeth Taylor snagged husband No. 6 during America’s Bicentennial bash in July 1976

The Great Pretender

In this riveting tale, Carolyn Woods recounts how she discovered that the man she fell in love with was actually a psychopath

Suited and Booted

Steve Garbarino looks at Michael Caine’s influential style and his decades-long friendship with photographer Terry O’Neill

Issue No. 102

June 26, 2021

Search Engine

William D. Cohan reveals the less than savory details behind former Google C.E.O. Eric Schmidt’s very public open marriage, and wonders if it’s why he left the tech giant

The Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight

As a new Fox-like network launches in Britain, Stuart Heritage examines GB News’s OMG moments

Code Red

With New York City stepping out of its coronavirus fog, John Froude looks at The Surge at Mount Sinai, a powerful documentary about the battle inside one hospital

Issue No. 101

June 19, 2021

Random Acts of Vileness

Roger Parloff alerts us to the fact that, for all the drama in D.C., Republicans are sneaking some of their most damaging laws into the books via state legislatures

Café to Go-Go?

Ashley Baker shares the news that has New Yorkers buzzing: Air Mail’s molto cool Italian coffee-mobile

Fallen Idols

Joseph Bullmore reports on the woke wars roiling Oxford, as a portrait of the Queen is taken down and a statue of Cecil Rhodes teeters

Issue No. 100

June 12, 2021

Backbencher

Should we call her Dr. Su(e)ssex? From the U.K., Stuart Heritage wonders if Meghan Markle has what it takes to succeed as a children’s-book author

Young and Hungry

As we publish our 100th issue of AIR MAIL, it’s time to recognize the greatest of the next generation

Model Misbehavior

From New York, Ashley Baker reports on how the man behind fashion powerhouse Zadig & Voltaire left his wife for … her twin sister?

Issue No. 99

June 5, 2021

Lost in Paradise

Stuart Heritage looks at the strange, sordid case involving a British socialite and the fatal shooting of a police officer in Belize

City of Blight

Alexandra Marshall reports from Paris, where the mood has darkened, the trash piles up, and, as some say, it feels like New York in the 70s

MeWork for Top Dogs

Scott Galloway explains how burning through mountains of money, whether you are Jeffrey Katzenberg or Adam Neumann, became the new game for C.E.O.’s

Issue No. 98

May 29, 2021

Norwegian Would?

Nina Burleigh and Tarjei Leer-Salvesen detail the scandalous truth omitted from the new film Oslo: the hero-diplomat was way too close to Jeffrey Epstein

Cummings and Goings

Boris Johnson faces his toughest challenge yet: a poisonous former aide out for revenge. Patrick Kidd reports from London

Blackboard Bungle

Johanna Berkman reveals the truths behind a diversity-equality-inclusion consultancy that’s all the rage at Manhattan’s elite private schools

Issue No. 97

May 22, 2021

Fasten Your Seat Belts

Alex Oliveira reports on a turbulent battle in the Hamptons, as highfliers fight to keep the local airport open, while some residents want to shut it down

The View From Here

We all know the Republican Party is a Trump personality cult. But Douglas McGrath asks: How did someone with that personality gain a cult?

The Super-Rich Are Different

In London, Joseph Bullmore explains why one brother is selling his house for $241 million, while the other brother makes space for 57 supercars

Issue No. 96

May 15, 2021

Designing Men

James Wolcott takes the measure of Halston, as portrayed by Ewan McGregor in the new Ryan Murphy limited series

Shakedown on the Lido

In Venice, Lisa Hilton reports on a jealous mayor who is squeezing the city’s oldest families for cash—and why the Biennale may collapse

Hollywood and Vines

The Clooneys’ winery in Provence hits a snag

Issue No. 95

May 8, 2021

Bending Over as Far as He Can

Shawn McCreesh reveals how Trump’s acting like a faded porn star: so desperate for attention that you can hire him to appear at your party

Meeting of the Minds

Jim Kelly sits down with Michael Lewis to discuss his new pandemic-centered best-seller—and why Lewis always trusts his luck

A Removable Feast

William Norwich recounts the incredible life of Sean Driscoll, who made evenings in New York palatable for 40 years

Issue No. 94

May 1, 2021

Exclusive Inclusivity

Alessandra Stanley schools New York City educators and parents on the smart and easy solution to diversity education

Not Our Kind

Nimrod Kamer looks at how Soho House, once the putative club of choice for the creative set, is selling out—and cutting the velvet rope

Dumb and Dumber

Patrick Kidd examines the scandal surrounding two prime ministers: moneygrubbing David Cameron and ethics-averse Boris Johnson

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