CONTRIBUTORS

TA-NEHISI COATES

"THE HOMELAND," P. 34

In this issue, Coates writes about The Homeland, a concept that first entered his lexicon when journalist Spencer Ackerman wrote about it in his book Reign of Terror. "Trying to explain what exactly The Homeland is—as opposed to what it is not—was the hardest part of the piece," says Coates. "The best part was talking to Russ Feingold, who, some 20 years ago, saw the possibility of our current timeline."

ELISE TAYLOR

"SALAD DAYS," P. 32

"They say do what you love, and I love... comically overpriced lunch salads," says Taylor, a senior staff writer at KFwho charted LA's power salads. "Because I am an unbiased journalist, I won't tell you which Los Angeles salad is my favorite, but I can tell you I did my due diligence in trying them all. Our business manager was less than thrilled with that month's expense report."

NICOLE CHAPOTEAU

"THE CRYPTO KEEPERS," P. 68

"The crypto shoot was a wild ride. Kind of similar to crypto in the markets!" says Chapoteau, VFs fashion director, who styled a dozen crypto power players featured in this issue. "On one end of the spectrum, we had someone who mentioned owning just one pair of pants, and on the other end, someone else came to set with a suite full of couture looks."

JOE HAGAN

"DARIO AMODEI HAS A COLD," P. 92

In pursuit of an interview with Dario Amodei, the founder of Anthropic, VF contributing editor Hagan spent three months reporting on the humans behind artificial intelligence. "I'd been feeling for a while that, as a writer, I needed to contend with AI and all its ramifications," says Hagan. "I went to San Francisco to try demystifying the technology and came away mystified by its makers."

CLARA MOLOT

"THE CRYPTO KEEPERS," P. 68

For Molot, a VF staff writer, reaching the subjects of her crypto story presented a unique challenge. "They were shocked, horrified, occasionally charmed, sometimes perturbed by the fact that I would simply pick up the phone," she says. "In an industry that lives on Signal, Telegram, and anonymous chat rooms, my cold calls were greeted with a suspicious 'Hello?' as if I were dialing in from another century."

MERT ALAS

"DREAM BIG," P. 38

"I wanted her in solitude. Not abandoned but self-contained," says Alas, who photographed Kylie Jenner for her Vanity Fair cover. "Somewhere in the Italian countryside where the air is too clean and the silence feels staged. A woman you look at twice. Once for the beauty. Once for the threat. Kylie carried that contradiction effortlessly. Desire with a blade of danger!"

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