Longform

The durable ineffectiveness of John Boehner.

Making the case that all Pixar movies exist on a cohesive timeline in the same universe dominated by a central theme: the battle between animals, humans and machines.

The hunt for a secretive network of British men obsessed with accumulating and cataloguing the eggs of rare birds.

The crimes of former NFL star Rae Carruth.

Previously: “The Boy They Couldn’t Kill” (Thomas Lake • Sports Illustrated)

The “naked technological realities” of America’s heartland and how they power a “cosy coastal world of pretend farmers’ markets and happy cows.”

On the film The Act of Killing, in which the actual perpetrators of a 1966-1966 Indonesian genocide recreate their own actions for the camera, and what it can tell us about our memories of the Vietnam War.

How a con man named James McCormick sold $38 million worth of phony bomb-detection devices to Iraqi authorities.

In early 2012, the bones of a woman and young boy were found near the Arizona-Mexico border. The author investigates who they were and how they died.

When Manny Ramirez played half a season for the E-DA Rhinos.

Attending the Afterlife Awareness Conference.

Encounters with Albert DeSalvo, the self-confessed Boston Strangler.

The story of a risky management style gone bust.

The shadowy cartel of doctors that control U.S. healthcare.

Is being a war correspondent worth the risk?

On the origins of The Village People.

On the lonely life of a for-profit pageant queen.

On having breasts and playing sports.

How Gaby Hoffman, who had roles in Field of Dreams, Uncle Buck and Sleepless in Seattle, survived child stardom.

On the dangerous state of U.K. banks—“an existential threat to British democracy, a more serious one than terrorism, either external or internal”—and how it can be fixed.

The story of Melissa Barthelemy, a prostitute killed in a string of murders on Long Island in December 2010.

An inside account of the Egyptian leader’s last day in power.

On the militarization of America’s police forces.

The story of the attack that killed U.S. ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, told from the persepctive of the security agents there to protect him.