Ben McGrath

3 weeks ago | slowtwitch.com | Ben McGrath

Laura Philipp of Germany competes in run leg of the Qatar Airways IRONMAN Hamburg European Championship on June 1, 2025 in Hamburg, Germany. (Photo by Jurij Kodrun/Getty Images for IRONMAN)On Sunday, Laura Philipp broke the women’s IRONMAN world record in Hamburg, stopping the clock in 8:03:27. She was propelled to the line by an amazing 2:38:27 marathon split, setting a new IRONMAN run record as well.

3 weeks ago | slowtwitch.com | Ben McGrath

Katrina Matthews of Great Britain (2rd place), Laura Philipp of Germany (1st place) and Solveig Lovseth of Norway (3rd place) (Photo by Jurij Kodrun/Getty Images for IRONMAN)Story by Ben Snider-McGrathThis past weekend saw multiple big races in the world of triathlon, with a stop in the World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) in Alghero, Italy, T100 San Francisco, and the women’s IRONMAN European Championship in Hamburg, Germany.

3 weeks ago | newyorker.com | Ben McGrath

At four o’clock on a recent Friday, Kevin McCullough found himself staring at a line of text on a poster in the Graham Avenue subway station, in Williamsburg. “Prompt: What comes first, the chicken or the egg?” The poster was an ad for the School of Visual Arts. Beneath the prompt was a crude painting—of an oval-shaped chick, or was it an egg with feet and a beak?—that seemed agnostic on the issue. McCullough shook his head.

3 weeks ago | slowtwitch.com | Ben McGrath

Cassandra Beaugrand takes the win. Photo: World TriathlonStory by Ben Snyder-McGrathSaturday saw many of the world’s top elite triathletes competing in both short and long course events across the globe, with WTCS Alghero in Italy and T100 San Francisco. In Italy, France’s Cassandre Beaugrand took a commanding win, while Brazil’s Miguel Hidalgo won the men’s race. The victories were the first of the WTCS season for both athletes.

2 months ago | crimereads.com | Austin Kelley |Ben McGrath

When I was in college, my roommate lent me a book, A Wild Sheep Chase, by Haruki Murakami. He knew I loved noir and thought I’d also love this postmodern Japanese mystery. I did not. In fact, I threw the book across the room (Sorry, Raj). Yes, it started out in a very hardboiled style with a scarred narrator searching for a missing person, er, sheep (or maybe both). Weird, wonderful. But by the end, the mystery wasn’t really solved, not in any satisfactory way.