Longform

On the chaotic letters of journalist and Dr. Strangelove screenwriter Terry Southern.

A profile of Google’s new CEO, “the most powerful tech giant you’ve never heard of.”

A report from the campaign trail.

Two men entered the ring for their first professional boxing match. Only one survived.

On Easter Sunday, 2008, a boat called the Alaskan Ranger went down in the Bering Sea. Forty-seven people were left to fend for themselves in 32-degree water. Forty-two survived.

A runner and her dog.

Overcrowding in prisons leads to doubling up inmates in solitary confinement, regardless of their homicidal intentions or mental health.

How the heir to the Hart wrestling dynasty burned every bridge from Canada to Mexico.

The story of Jejoen Bontinck, a Belgian teen-ager who travelled to Syria to fight with radical Islamists.

A voyage to North Sentinel island, home to one of the last entirely isolated populations on Earth.

America’s first modern mass shooting.

“I made a pact with myself when I was 15 that if I was going to live this life, I'm only going to do it on my terms, and I'm only going to do it if I'm putting my middle finger up at society the whole time. So any time I've had yearnings to go, "Aw, gee, I wish I could be invited to the Emmys," I say, Ru, Ru, remember the pact you made. You never wanted to be a part of that bullshit. In fact, I'd rather have an enema than have an Emmy.”

The U.S. Department of Justice investigates the Blackwater founder’s new firm.

A profile of Garry Shandling.

“The pitch meeting kicked off with one Nike official accidentally addressing Stephen as 'Steph-on.' ... It got worse from there. A PowerPoint slide featured Kevin Durant's name, presumably left on by accident, presumably residue from repurposed materials.”

The revival of a landmark 1921 musical opens a door on the deep and twisted roots of black performance in America.

A taxidermist's life gradually spins out of control.

Harland Sanders left home when he was 13. He once gunned a man down in the street for painting over one of his signs. During the war, he fed the scientists who created the atomic bomb. And then, in his 60s and going by the moniker Colonel Sanders, he began selling fried chicken.

How the director of Midnight Special thinks strategically about his art and his career.

An obituary for Toronto’s notorious former mayor.

“I never got the ‘I’ve never seen a black woman, let me touch your hair’ vibe, it was more just like, ‘Hi, attractive person, let’s do this.’”