Articles

Nina’s work has appeared in The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Fortune, and other publications. Here is a selection of her feature articles.

Africa
Rising

2020

Harvard? Yale? Princeton? For these Kenyan students, the dream of escaping poverty hinges on an American education.

Jackie
Gilmore

2019

In a world fraught with uncertainty, Gilmore offers her students a positive, hopeful narrative that they can latch onto.

A First-Hand
Look at Atrocity

2018

My family used its connections and money to escape the inferno, while others with less money and fewer connections were murdered.

How to Feed
the World

2016

Buffett doesn’t pretend to have the solution to world hunger. But he is certain that we need new ideas: “What we’re doing isn’t working.”

The Met’s
Grand Gamble

2010

Is Peter Gelb presiding over a leap into the 21st century or the slow decline of the world’s greatest (and most extravagant) opera house?

Rich Harvard,
Poor Harvard

2009

Could the same lethal mix of uncurbed expansion, colossal debt, arrogance, and mismanagement that ravaged Wall Street bring down America’s most famous university?

Jeffrey Sachs
$200 Billion Dream

2007

“The basic truth is that for less than a percent of the income of the rich world, nobody has to die of poverty on the planet,” says Sachs. “That’s really a powerful truth.”

Greenwich’s Outrageous Fortunes

2006

The money that talks loudest in America today belongs to a closely knit, inscrutable group of men who run hedge funds; Greenwich is swarming with them.

Don’t Miss the 258th
Richest American

2005

In 1985, the combined wealth of the Forbes 400 was $238 billion, adjusted for inflation. Today, the 400 richest people in America are together worth $1.13 trillion.

Steve Wynn’s
Biggest Gamble

2005

The most notable feature of Wynn Las Vegas may be its staggering cost: $2.7 billion. To Steve Wynn, however, his latest creation is not an empty extravagance – it is high art.

The Taking of
Time Warner

2004

In another era, a less manic one, Time Warner might have swallowed up AOL without blinking. But the late 1990s were not normal times.

Dennis
the Menace

2001

“I am one of the finest magazine publishers in the world,” Felix Dennis says. “That’s not braggadocio – I refuse to engage in false modesty – it’s what I am.”

The Eminence
of Excess

1999

Thierry Despont is known for creating follies, fin-de-siècle exercises in excess, houses blown up to outrageous proportions that cost $20 million to $50 million.

Wall Street
Follies

1999

While Christie Hefner is trying to build Playboy into a serious media company, her dad, in silk pajamas, lounges with his young companions, Brande and the twins, Mandy and Sandy.

How Levi’s Trashed a Great American Brand

1999

Levi Strauss is a failed utopian management experiment. It’s what happens when well intentioned but misguided managers run a private company answering to no one.

Why Women Find
Lauder Mesmerizing

1998

Selling cosmetics is an art; to do it well, you have to tap into something bigger, more abstract than the product itself. No one understands this better than Leonard Lauder.

Gap
Gets It

1998

Mickey Drexler is turning his apparel chain into a global brand. He wants buying a Gap T-shirt to be like buying a quart of milk. But is this business a slave to fashion?

AfricaRising

JackieGilmore

A First-HandLook at Atrocity

How to Feedthe World

The Met’sGrand Gamble

Rich Harvard,Poor Harvard

Jeffrey Sachs$200 Billion Dream

Greenwich’s Outrageous Fortunes

Don’t Miss the 258thRichest American

Steve Wynn’sBiggest Gamble

The Taking ofTime Warner

Dennisthe Menace

The Eminenceof Excess

Wall StreetFollies

How Levi’s Trashed a Great American Brand

Why Women FindLauder Mesmerizing

GapGets It

Africa
Rising

Jackie
Gilmore

A First-Hand
Look at Atrocity

How to Feed
the World

The Met’s
Grand Gamble

Rich Harvard,
Poor Harvard

Jeffrey Sachs
$200 Billion Dream

Don’t Miss the 258th
Richest American

Steve Wynn’s
Biggest Gamble

The Taking of
Time Warner

Dennis
the Menace

The Eminence
of Excess

Wall Street
Follies

Why Women Find
Lauder Mesmerizing

Gap
Gets It