The Air Mail Archive: Every weekly issue

Issue No. 358

May 23, 2026

THE ART OF MURDER

Since the New York gallerist Brent Sikkema was stabbed to death in Rio, his estranged husband has become the central figure in a lurid murder-for-hire trial—which just reached a verdict

REALITY BYTES

As Hollywood embraces A.I., a new generation of synthetic starlets —obedient, ageless, endlessly available—is reviving an ancient fantasy, and creating a modern nightmare for real women

MONEYBALLS

The founder of Beau D., a cheeky Malibu male-skin-care line known for its penis cream, is suing Brad Pitt’s luxury cosmetics behemoth, Beau Domaine, for trademark infringement

Issue No. 357

May 16, 2026

DEATH OF AN AMERICAN DREAM

Joshua Pack was a world leader in private equity. But when he and his family moved to a palatial London home, the cracks in his perfect life began to show, reports Ashley Baker

A LATE NIGHT TO REMEMBER

As Stephen Colbert’s run on The Late Show nears its end, America is losing not just a comedian but a reminder of what public decency sounds like, says David Kamp

THE FASHION WHISPERER

Edward Enninful transformed British Vogue into a cultural force. His next act—the media company EE72—is even more ambitious, as he reveals in an interview with Vassi Chamberlain

Issue No. 356

May 9, 2026

MORE FERGALICIOUS BY THE DAY

Evicted from Royal Lodge, trailed by Epstein questions, and reportedly weighing a tell-all interview, Sarah Ferguson, Andrew’s disgraced ex-wife, has nothing left to sell but herself

MONUMENTAL MISTAKES

With Donald Trump aiming to remake Washington in his own image—gaudy and vulgar—architecture critic Paul Goldberger takes stock of a capital turning into a vanity project

PUTIN ON A SHOW

Jude Law is Vladimir Putin! The Wizard of the Kremlin movie offers a portrait of Russian propaganda and authoritarian power that one former Kremlin propagandist finds chillingly accurate

Issue No. 355

May 2, 2026

THE LION IN WINTOUR

Anna Wintour turned a once modest costume benefit into a V.I.P. colossus. Now, with Bezos money, a new Met gallery, and succession whispers, fashion’s biggest night is facing its own redesign, writes William D. Cohan

THE TRIALS OF ELON

As Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI begins, his battle for the future of artificial intelligence looks less like a fight over safety than a campaign to control it—and inoculate it against the so-called woke mind virus

THE POD SQUAD

King Charles III’s recent visit to the U.S. introduced a new system for managing access to him: the pod. But what does it mean if you’re in the wrong one? Alyson Krueger reports from a Washington garden party and Manhattan gala

Issue No. 354

April 25, 2026

REASONABLE DOUBTS

The Chandra Levy murder transfixed Washington, ruined a congressman, convicted a killer—and then it all unraveled. Twenty-five years later, the mystery remains stranger than ever

POMP AND MAGA-STANCE

America’s 250th birthday was meant to celebrate the republic. But Trump has something more imperial in mind: race cars, cage fights, and his infamous “Arc de Trump”

BEHIND THE CROWN

Queen Elizabeth II spent her life being inscrutable. Four years after her death, a sharper, stranger, funnier monarch is beginning to come into view. Craig Brown investigates

Issue No. 353

April 18, 2026

PRESIDENT VS. POPE

When Trump picked a fight with Pope Leo this week, he underestimated Il Papa’s calm authority and massive popularity, not least with young American Catholics, says Carolina de Armas

ALL ABOUT LENA

In an interview, Lena Dunham revisits the chaos of her 20s—from the stratospheric fame of Girls to illness and addiction—while getting some jabs in at the toxic men who surrounded her

EPSTEIN’S POWER BROKER

Jeffrey Epstein’s glittering circle of scientists, writers, and Nobel laureates did not assemble itself. As Sam Kahn uncovers, the star literary agent John Brockman helped bring it together

Issue No. 352

April 11, 2026

READ ’EM AND WEEP

Prince Harry’s seven-year war with the tabloids has devolved into a High Court circus with the revelation of flirty Facebook messages between a tabloid journalist and “Mr Mischief” himself

THE IRONY DOME

Long before the current war, Israel and Iran were covert partners in a secret nuclear-missile program concocted behind Washington’s back. Elaine Sciolino revisits this unlikely alliance

BETTER CALL JUDA!

Juda Engelmayer is the crisis publicist who takes on figures so taboo (Harvey Weinstein! Sean “Diddy” Combs! Anna Delvey!) no one else will touch them. How does he sleep at night?

Issue No. 351

April 4, 2026

LICENSE TO STEAL

Two years after his suicide, the Swiss wealth manager Eric Freymond’s alleged web of deception has cost Ursula Andress, the original Bond girl, $22.5 million—and an Hermès heir counting billions in losses

BLOOD MONEY

When a Polymarket bettor made $553,000 predicting Ayatollah Khamenei’s death, outrage ensued—but profiting from disaster (whether betting on sieges or shipwrecks) is nothing new

PRE-WAR AND PEACE

Forget Billionaires’ Row—Manhattan’s high-end property market is shifting as buyers swap glossy new condos for historic co-ops that offer old-money cachet at half the price. Michael Gross investigates

Issue No. 350

March 28, 2026

TROUBLE IN PARADISE

William D. Cohan investigates a suspected act of vandalism on a controversial erosion-control project and the widening divide between Nantucket’s summer set and year-round locals

GIVE AND TAKE

In David Kamp and Joe McKendry’s Trumpian riff on Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, a guardrail gives everything to a greedy boy who grows into a greedier man with a “most peculiar skin color”

REINS OF TERROR!

First Netflix canceled Harry & Meghan. Then Meghan’s lifestyle show. Now the Sussexes are clawing their way back to the streamer—this time with a polo series no one asked for

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