Longreads: Daily Beast Picks Week’s Best for October 8, 2011

Steve JobsStephen FryI will not be so presumptuous as to mourn the loss of Steve as a personal friend, but I will mourn his loss as a man who changed my world completely.

The Koch Brothers’ Secret Iran DealsAsjylyn Loder and David Wells, BloombergA Bloomberg investigation has revealed that Koch Industries, one of the most secretive global corporations in the world, bribes governments to win contracts and has made billions off covert illegal deals with Iran.

The GhostwriterAndrew Romano, GQOn New Year’s Day in 1953, Hank Williams, the man who invented modern country music, died of an overdose in the backseat of his Cadillac at age 29. A few days later, his mama searched his house and made a secret discovery that—60 years later—would allow old Hank’s ghost to rise from the grave.

Taken by PiratesJeffrey Gettleman, New York Times MagazineOne couple’s 388-day ordeal—and their unlikely saviors.

Kristol PalaceDaniel Luban, n+1The “conversion” narrative of 20th-century neoconservatives—in which erstwhile leftists or liberals saw the light after being “mugged by reality”—mischaracterizes their intellectual development, which was hawkishly anti-communist almost from the very beginning.

How Dan Harmon Drives Himself Crazy Making CommunityBrian Raftery, WiredDan Harmon is the creator of Community, a sitcom about a group of community-college study buddies and the most giddily experimental show on network TV. He comes up with his plots by drawing circles. Lots of circles.

You Got Your Sperm Where?Tony Dokoupil, NewsweekMeet a “donorsexual” on the Web—and he’ll service you anywhere.