Why You Should Give a Sh*t

As one of the Central Park Five, Yusef Salaam served seven years in prison for a horrific crime he didn't commit. Now he wants to serve the city that condemned him. "I was a pariah. They said I was born a mistake. I'm not a mistake," Salaam tells Esquire. "And I think that what I have been through gives me perspective on what people go through in life. I never thought about politics or holding elective office until recently, but I feel that this—I guess you might call it empathy—will be helpful to me as I serve my community. If, as Nietzsche says, you can find the why, then you can live any how. We all need a reason to live. This is mine. I was supposed to go through what I went through."

View in Browser  SHOP EXCLUSIVE SUBSCRIBE Yusef Salaam and the Act of Forgiveness As one of the Central Park Five, Yusef Salaam served seven years in prison for a horrific crime he didn't commit. Now he wants to serve the city that condemned him. "I was a pariah. They said I was born a mistake. I'm not a mistake," Salaam tells Esquire. "And I think that what I have been through gives me perspective on what people go through in life. I never thought about politics or holding elective office until recently, but I feel that this—I guess you might call it empathy—will be helpful to me as I serve my community. If, as Nietzsche says, you can find the why, then you can live any how. We all need a reason to live. This is mine. I was supposed to go through what I went through." Read More The 4 Best Electric Toothbrushes—Tested and Reviewed Achieve a pearly white smile without all the hard work. Read More The Best Horror Books of 2023 Are Sickly Delights Our favorite hell-raising reads of the year (so far) are pushing the genre in outrageous new directions. Read More Unsurprisingly, Amy Coney Barrett's Weird Church Faces Allegations of Abuse There are corners of Holy Mother Church in which weird ideas beget weird behavior. One of the late Senator Dianne Feinstein's last great moments was when she looked nominee Amy Coney Barrett up and down during the confirmation hearing and said, "The dogma lives loudly in you." There were howls from the Right about "bigotry" and "religious tests in office." And the confirmation process was so carefully built for speed — "Rigged," one might say — that a true debate on the subject never happened. (Once Dobbs dropped, Feinstein's statement looked a lot better.) But, if the feds really are onto something here, the question may reopen widely. Read More Dry Skin Is No Match For These Moisturizers Say hello to smooth, hydrated skin no matter what season it is. Read More Don't Meet Your Heroes, Especially the Dead Ones In 1933, Ernest Hemingway needed money. Esquire needed a writer. A boat brought them together. Read More The Magic of Post Malone When talking to or about Post Malone, you find yourself saying things you have never said. So here are five very common words that I am putting in this specific order for the very first time: He owns a sword forge. A couple years ago, Malone bought some industrial space in Utah and turned it into a working sword and knife factory, because it's his hobby. I ask whether it's true that he has a sword forge, and he answers the question in the one way you absolutely want that question to be answered, which is: "Well, fuck yeah." Malone lights up when he talks about this stuff, like an energetic twelve-year-old with a new favorite toy and somewhere between five and eight Bud Lights in him. "There's nothing better than a cold beer, some good music, and just a hot-ass piece of metal and you're fucking whaling on it." Read More Follow Us Unsubscribe | Privacy Notice | CA Notice at Collection Esquire is a publication of Hearst Magazines. ©2023 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This email was sent by Hearst Magazines, 300 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019-3779