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Every state in America has a fentanyl problem, but only the state of Oregon has decriminalized simple possession of all drugs and sent hundreds of millions in legal weed tax dollars to organizations that are trying to heal people. I went to Portland in June, two and a half years after voters approved Measure 110, to see where all that money is going and what the work of healing people really looks like. I spoke to people in recovery, and others living out on the street. There is no sense beating around it: downtown Portland is a shitshow. But along the way, I found both chaos and hope. You can read it at the link in my bio.
This was the most difficult and most important story of my career, and it’s also the last one I’ll file at Esquire. After 8 years, the time has come to do something new. I’m thankful for a place that let me interview Pelé when I was 24 years old. I witnessed history at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, at the White House, at the southern border during the family separation crisis. I covered the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show from backstage, and followed the U.S. Men’s National Team to the World Cup in Qatar. I got to chat with Shaq and Tony Hawk and a congressman or two. I went to Glasgow and Mexico City and Milan, and it was technically work. I got to see what I saw and say it in the glossy pages. What a privilege. Now it’s on to the next thing. More on that soon.
(photography by @mhansonphoto , who captured the light and the dark here so well)
Eleven years ago, Tupac came back to life. So did Michael Jackson two years later. Okay, they still weren’t breathing. But there they were, gracing the stage, digitally reincarnated as “holograms.” They caused a commotion the moment they materialized. Some people who saw them thought they were pretty sweet—a nice tribute. Others got queasy. Did the shows’ producers have the families’ approval? Would the King of Pop even want to be resurrected as a collection of light beams? Could we really make that choice for him?
Just a decade later, you can forget about holograms. We’re approaching the possibility of digital immortality.
check out Who Controls the Resurrection Machine? in @esquire ’s Summer Issue, on newsstands now
Back in March, I called up U.S. Soccer and told them we’d like to do a story on the men’s team heading into the World Cup. Never mind that they hadn’t yet qualified for the tournament. We kept the faith, and from there it was a maze of logistics and email and phone calls as we tried to wrangle a bunch of top-level athletes into interviews and photoshoots on two different continents.
It was worth it in the end to tell the story of this young team—the second youngest we’ve ever sent to a World Cup—that represents a generation of American soccer players who are unlike any who have come before. The key players in our midfield and attack play for some of the biggest clubs in Europe. They’ve been over there since their teens learning to play like kids in countries with far grander soccer traditions do. And they have the chance over the next few weeks to change the way the world views American soccer. They can start by showing England, on the day after Thanksgiving, that they no longer belong at the kids’ table.
You can find our story on Esquire.com today, and on newsstands on November 27—my birthday. Grab one for yourself as a present to me.
Towards the end, my grandfather told us about the time he was sailing on a Navy battleship in the Mediterranean Sea and his convoy was attacked by the German Luftwaffe. It was not the only memory Jack Shevlin kept to himself over the decades. My mom didn’t know he was at Iwo Jima until a few years before he died last summer at 101 years old. His was a grand life, an adventurous one, a brave and extraordinary and unlikely one for a Depression kid born in a pandemic who stuck around long enough to see the next one. He unspooled a story across four continents before he returned home, married a pretty girl from down the block in Queens, and climbed the ladder in the textile business. It’s a story that still convinces me to believe, as I’ve grown old enough to know the difference, that there is something to be salvaged in this experiment of America. I’m so grateful to see it in the pages of @esquire ’s March issue, out now on a newsstand near you.
the first episode in our new series is live now @esquire , where we break down a new Supreme Court case challenging a 110-year-old New York gun law. swipe here for the bite-size version!
For @esquire ’s Summer Issue, I suggested it’s time to admit that the United States dropping bombs and shooting bullets has not solved a problem in a long time.
