Ben McGrath
The New Yorker
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Past articles by Ben:
Predicting the Earthquake That Could Wreck New York
A geologist heads to the hills to study precariously perched boulders, which could provide clues to the frequency of the rare major quakes that shake the region. → Read More
Invasion of the Sports Cheaters!
As Aaron Judge broke Roger Maris’s home-run record, weird vibes sullied professional chess and poker, and an angling tournament looked to be the target of a low-tech con: lead weights in the fish. → Read More
Splash Down in the Hamptons
Tailwind Air, a competitor to Blade, wants its seaplane passengers to feel an Andy-Warhol-with-his pants-rolled-up vibe. → Read More
A Secret Voyage Across the Seven Seas of Central Park
Two urban Shackletons braved the elements for a clandestine, moonlit canoe excursion down each of the Park’s waterways, from the Harlem Meer in the north to the Pond in the south, dodging the police and “Star Wars” reënactors along the way. → Read More
After Seventy-five Hundred Miles, a Long-Haul Paddler Floats Into Town
Neal Moore, a canoeist who set off from Oregon, closes in on the Statue of Liberty after twenty-two months, twenty-two rivers, and one capsizing incident—a journey inspired by the disappearance of his fellow-canoeist, Dick Conant. → Read More
Thanks for the Bitcoin! How Does It Work?
A quirky Toronto broadsheet, beloved by Justin Trudeau and Margaret Atwood, gets tech support from an Ethereum founder. → Read More
Did Spacemen, or People with Ramps, Build the Pyramids?
Elon Musk said aliens did it (“obv.”), but an amateur Egyptologist in Mississippi tested out a homemade lever gizmo to lift a two-ton block. → Read More
The Brooklyn Startup Helping High-School Athletes Go Viral
Ben McGrath reports on Overtime, the social-media-centric startup, based in Brooklyn, that produces short videos that give a semi-professional gloss to amateur sports. → Read More
The Politics of Troy and the Stalled Campaign of Kirsten Gillibrand
Ben McGrath on the city of Troy, New York, where Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has headquartered her Presidential campaign, and what this area might suggest about the direction of the Democratic Party. → Read More
The Glories of Minnesota Hockey Hair, from the Mullet to the “Portobella”
For nearly a decade, one man has chronicled one of the most endearing rituals in American sports, elevating the hockey haircut to viral prominence. → Read More
Are You Ready for Some (More) Football?
The Alliance of American Football is the latest effort to fill the off-season void left by the N.F.L., which is still America’s most popular televised entertainment. → Read More
Betting on the Super Bowl in the Year of the American Sports Gambler
If you listen to businesspeople, legalized gambling is the biggest story in sports, the answer to cord-cutting and second screens and shortening attention spans. → Read More
At N.H.L.’s All-Star Weekend, Female Players Prove Their Excellence, but NBC Can’t Keep Up
Ben McGrath writes about this year’s N.H.L All-Star skills competition, where the ice-hockey players Kendall Coyne Schofield and Brianna Decker excelled, though they were largely overlooked in the telecast. → Read More
IndyCar for the Post-Millennial Age
George Steinbrenner IV, the youngest owner on the circuit, tries to make racing relevant again. → Read More
The Improbable Life of Ray Hill
Hill was an activist for gay rights, prison reform, and free speech. He was also a radio d.j. and a shoe salesman and a stage performer and a jewel thief. → Read More
Wayne Gretzky and the Mysteries of Athletic Greatness
One of the implicit lessons of “In Search of Greatness,” a new documentary that focusses on the N.H.L. legend, is that you can’t teach athletic excellence; you can only encourage it or stifle it. → Read More
“Local Politics Is Nice Politics”: Small-Town Concerns and National Implications in New York’s Nineteenth District
Ben McGrath writes about New York’s Nineteenth Congressional District, where the Democrat Antonio Delgado is challenging the incumbent Republican, John Faso. → Read More
The Guilty Verdict in the College-Basketball Bribery Trial Looks Like Good News for the N.B.A.
Last week, as the attorneys’ closing statements wrapped up in federal court, the N.B.A. introduced a special class of contract for élite eighteen-year-olds to earn as much as a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars playing a year of minor-league basketball instead of attending college. → Read More
The College-Basketball Bribery Trial Makes Agents and Sneaker Companies Seem Like the Good Guys
In a case involving the covert passing of envelopes stuffed with cash, no one looks as guilty as the N.C.A.A. → Read More
Touring Yankee Stadium with Marlins Man
A sports-world fixture, the Miami superfan is on track to attend a hundred and sixty-five baseball games this year. → Read More