(Sub)Culture Features

Ethan Phelan Melzer’s secret life of hate ran deep. The 24-year-old private in the 173rd Airborne Brigade appeared to be just another young soldier, trying to find his way through military life at Fort Benning, Georgia. However, in his private time, prosecutors allege, Melzer had another, sinister side: He said …

Before President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February, before the possibility of nuclear war became a distinct reality, Daniel’s 12-year-old stepdaughter posted a TikTok showing support for the LGBTQ+ community. When it gained a fair amount of traction, that’s when Daniel grew scared. “We had to ask her to take …

Almost fresh out of college and still fairly newly arrived to New York City, I spent the early 1990s working at what I called — when I puffed my chest out a bit — “an assistant editor on the national affairs and foreign affairs desks at Rolling Stone.” Here’s what …

Interview with the Vampire, author Anne Rice’s first volume in her Vampire Chronicles, had been among my favorite novels since I first read it in 1977 (I’ve read it many times since). It was imaginative in its construction and narrative voice — the worst that could be said was that …

In the wake of executive producer Mike Richards’ resignation as the new host of Jeopardy! after facing allegations of employment discrimination, the Jeopardy!powers that be decided to go with someone as interim host who seemed immune to cancellation: erstwhile Nineties fashion plate, longtime network TV sweetheart, and neuroscientist Mayim Bialik. …

This story was originally published bySearchlight New Mexico and is published here as part of an ongoing collaboration with Rolling Stone. FARMINGTON, NM — Three weeks ago, city police and San Juan County sheriff’s deputies got a tip about a man moving a truckload of marijuana into a budget motel …

Retired detective Paul Holes has never read his friend Michelle McNamara’s New York Times-bestselling book I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, about the hunt for the Golden State Killer — despite factoring heavily into its contents. First, he was too busy tracking down the man he and McNamara had teamed …

Dan Colucci’s cigarette habit started before he was a teenager. It was part of his ritual on the way to middle school, when he would pass by a local gas station in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. “Packs of cigarettes were sitting loose,” he tells Rolling Stone. “So, I would just go …

The Stonewall Riots weren’t the beginning of the gay civil rights movement — they weren’t even the first gay riots in the United States. And when the plainclothes police officers walked in the Stonewall Inn at 2 a.m. and shut down the bar, it was the second time they’d raided …

H oward Stern hasn’t released a book in 24 years. Back in those days, he was a guy who didn’t think twice about calling Rosie O’Donnell a “fat pig”; using a giant, rotting fish as a mallet to spank a naked woman on the air; or viciously mocking a member …