Longform

A report from Antartica, where the ecosystem is changing so fast scientists have no idea what will come next.

On a desolate, six-mile stretch of Indian beachfront, the bulk of the world’s big ships are dismantled for scrap. Though a ship is usually worth over $1 million in steel, the margins are low, the leftovers are toxic, and the labor—which employs huge numbers of India’s poor—is wildly dangerous.

I used to believe the art world was at war with itself, that money was fighting art and vice versa. But I’ve been living in my own ambivalence about things for a decade now, or more, and I’m starting to think it’s not a war but a new equilibrium state, defined by that ambivalence.

On incarcerated mothers and their decimated families.

A murder, a missing deer head, and a Mr. Big sting.

The career of Elton John.

How chronic fatigue syndrome changed the author’s life.

I know dudes like me aren’t supposed to talk about depression, but I’ll talk about it. If a real motherfucker like me can struggle with it, then anybody can struggle with it.

Behold the marvel of the animal’s fabrication.

Chad Walde believed in his work at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Then he got a rare brain cancer linked to radiation, and the government denied it had any responsibility.

Representative Matt Shea has been trying to create a libertarian utopia in the Pacific Northwest, a 51st state called Liberty. And he keeps getting re-elected.

A profile of Ferran Adriá.

A decrepit building and a shameful family legacy.

In February 2015, a cryptic email reached correspondent Ann Cooper from around the globe and across 28 years. It would pull her back into one of the most extraordinary reporting jobs in her career.

Last December, a Canadian pharmaceuticals executive and his wife were found strangled in their home. No one knows who did it or why, but everyone has a theory.

Could an ex-convict become an attorney?

In many homicides, police believe they know the killer’s identity but can’t get a witness to cooperate.

The story of a serial swatter.

Philadelphia’s District Attorney reinvents the role of the modern prosecutor.

On the NBA’s most modern avatar.

A slick-talking con artist turned an innocent brother and sister into his personal slaves.

An undercover federal agent behind a massive sting operation that took down dozens of gun-runners and drug-dealers tells all.

Eighteen years ago, NFL wide receiver Rae Carruth conspired to kill the woman carrying his child. The woman, Cherica Adams, died. The child, Chancellor Lee Adams, did not.

When Japanese men in their teens and twenties shut themselves in their rooms, sometimes for a period of years, one way to lure them out is a hired “big sister.”