Longform

A profile of personal finance guru Dave Ramsey, who built his biblically inspired get-out-of-debt empire on the premise “it’s within your power to not take part in recessions and the economic troubles facing American families.”

For years, Joshua Milton Blahyi, better known as General Butt Naked, was one of Liberia’s most feared warlords. Then he became a pastor. Today he visits the families of his victims to seek forgiveness for his sins.

Ending a pregnancy in the most “pro-life” state in America.

Frederick Douglass and the specter of slavery in Talbot County, Maryland.

An examination of the Minutemen movement and death on the border.

A profile of cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter, who has spent the last 30 years trying to replicate the human mind.

Each soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan generated around 10 pounds of garbage per day. Most of that trash—along with used equipment and medical supplies and other wastes of war—was burned in open-air pits, emitting a toxic smoke that many soliders blame for their poor health today.

How architecture has made Los Angeles a bank robber’s paradise.

Lauren spent six years of her childhood locked in a closet, starved and tortured by her birth mother and stepfather. Miraculously, she survived; that’s when her long road to recovery began.

Memories of a lovely afternoon with a serial killer.

What the popular game says about our subconscious.

A profile of the policy wonk who shone the light and turned the tide on overseas tax havens.

How Michael Manos, a.k.a. the Glam Scammer, a career con man who relied on a combination of fake reality TV shows and fake fundraisers to bilk people in Atlanta, Dallas, and D.C., finally got caught.

A profile of the comedian.

What neuroscience is learning from code-breakers and thieves.

The search for the hottest chili.

The rock critic confronts his favorite musician.

A profile of Brian Eno as he transitioned into installation art.

Exploring the vast underground world of New York City with three of the people who know it best.

How Service Corporation International corporatized death, driving growth through everything from aggresive acquisitions, volume pricing on caskets and embalming fluid, a “strong flu season,” and pre-selling over $7.5 billion worth of burials.

New medicines can cost hundreds of thousands of dolllars a year. Are they worth it? A look at how a pair of pharmaceutical compainies set their prices.

In the shallow reefs of Ayungin Shoal sits a rusted-out ship manned by eight Filipino soldiers whole sole purpose is to keep China in check.