Longform

He’s spent decades dodging the law. He’s escaped from jail twice by helicopter. He’s given millions to the poor. The story of how Vassilis Paleokostas, Greece’s most wanted man, became a folk hero.

On former CIA agent John T. Downey, who spent more than 20 years in China as the longest held American captive of war.

When Carmen Segarra was hired to examine Goldman Sachs for the New York Fed, she bought a small recorder and began taping her meetings. Here is what she found before she was fired.

The story of heiress Huguette Clark, who spent her life avoiding people and collecting dolls.

Life after losing your memory at 22.

Sam Simon made a fortune from The Simpsons. Now, diagnosed with terminal cancer, he is racing to spend it.

Jeff Walton is a 69-year-old plumber with a wife and 35-year-old son. It turns out he’s also Ronald Stan, a Canadian man who faked his own death in 1977.

What it’s like to be struck by lightning.

On America’s vanishing night sky and life in perpetual light.

A sober look at the Senator.

ISIS vs. the Kurds.

How the tech billionaire came to own 87,000 acres, three hotels, a wastewater treatment plant, a cemetery and 380 cats.

“Kelsey’s gender identity is ‘non-binary.’ Or, ‘agender.’ It’s what Kelsey feels comfortable with, even though the world keeps insisting, in a million little ways, that Kelsey has to choose.”

Scenes from the California drought.

The survivors who “have built the most effective, organized anti-rape movement since the late ’70s.”

“When I woke up hours later, I really believed I had been in those mountains hiking — that it was not a dream. And I really had lost my voice. I had lost my words. I was unable to say, ‘I am trapped in my brain’ or, ‘My memories are mixing with imagination.’”

Understanding genius.

An excerpt from Darnielle’s debut novel, in which a disfigured man talks to maladjusted teens.

On domestic violence and the NFL.

The fallout from a 1987 Wisconsin manhunt.

On Billy Joel’s sardonic gloom.

What to do about climate change.