An intriguing, first-of-its-kind cultural history of the turn of the 1960s

The entries in this collection take us to the farthest extremes of travel with tales of danger, disorientation and bemused discomfort; combines reportage, fiction and poetry representing some of the best-known writers of our time.

The true story of a music editor at VICE who tried to become the coolest reporter the company had ever had — by becoming an international drug smuggler. In 2019, music reporter Slava P, an editor for VICE media, was sentenced to nine years in prison for recruiting friends into a scheme to smuggle cocaine from the U.S. into Australia. Five of them were already in jail. Immediately, Slava P was internationally infamous. Was he a victim of pressure to commit extreme acts for the sake of a good story? A product of a drug-obsessed work environment? Or a manipulator who pushed vulnerable young people into crime? Here, Slava P tells his side of the story: what exactly happened and how the precarious, dog-eat-dog atmosphere of a media company can lead the young, the naive, and the ambitious into taking crazy risks. Bad Trips is a story about drugs, hip-hop, influencers, and glamour, set against the backdrop of one of the world’s most influential news and entertainment sites, VICE. Its cast of beautiful young people and semi-famous rappers passes from the seediest apartments to the most elegant of private clubs. Slava P’s chronicling of his years at this famous hotbed of excess is a piercing insight into contemporary media culture. All royalties from the sale of Bad Trips go to co-author Brian Whitney.

In the summer of 1978, twenty-one-year-old Paul Wilson jumps at the chance to join two local icons on a dream surf trip to mainland Mexico, unaware their ultimate destination lies in the heart of drug cartel country. Having no earthly idea of where he'll get the money to pay his share, and determined to prove his mettle, he does the only thing he can think of: He robs a supermarket. And, if karma didn't already have enough reason to doom the trip, he soon learns one of his companions is a convicted killer on the run, and the other an unscrupulous cad. Mishap and misfortune rule the days, and mere survival takes precedence over surfing. Original photographs (including pre-kingpin El Chapo), and Wilson's strong narrative style, combine to make this true story personal--in the tradition of Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer, and Barbarian Days, A Surfing Life by William Finnegan--except this tale had to wait for the statute of limitations to expire before it could be told.

In this hilarious novel, written in the voice of eighth-grader Wyatt Palmer, Dave Barry takes us on a class trip to Washington, DC. Wyatt, his best friend, Matt, and a few kids from Culver Middle School find themselves in a heap of trouble-not just with their teachers, who have long lost patience with them -- but from several mysterious men they first meet on their flight to the nation's capital. In a fast-paced adventure with the monuments as a backdrop, the kids try to stay out of danger and out of the doghouse while trying to save the president from attack-or maybe not.

An Air Force brat and his siblings grew up in the 50's and 60's under the watchful eye of a strict father, an Air Force Colonel. With an ongoing Cold War, the Red Menace, and war in Viet Nam, we brats only cared about going to the local swim club. But then along came the draft of 1969 that forced an extremely reluctant, long-haired young man into the Army to learn artillery. After training, he spent 397 days in Viet Nam at remote Fire Support Bases along the Cambodian border. Not a book of "war stories", this book describes the chaotic 1960s, and what everyday life was like in Viet Nam, changing from boredom in harsh conditions, to heartfelt tragedies, plus a lot of humor. It also attempts to set the record straight on the true end of the American ground war, and the shameful conditions under which it occurred.