Longform

“Which is the largest country in the world, economically speaking? It’s America, the United States. Do you know why? Because way back—this is history, you can look it up on the Internet—the colonization was done by men who believed in the word of God. And they were tithers. That’s why you see on the dollar bill: ‘In God we trust.”

“I love my mother a not-normal amount.”

Marketing research,the pre-Facebook history of ‘likeability,’ and why there will never be a ‘dislike’ button.

A profile of Alexey Navalny, a Russian anti-corruption crusader.

Why awareness isn’t saving lives.

When a 26-year-old Chinese entrepreneur pulled over to answer a text message he was carjacked by Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. This is what happened that night and how he escaped.

Aside from the wealthiest players, nine out of 10 NFL athletes are likely to be insolvent within 10 years of retirement. A new executive MBA program aims to change that.

On dissident filmmakers in Syria.

Dinner with the novelist, the book critic and “Myshkin, a 14-year-old female dachshund who is deaf but decidedly not mute.”

Dillie Nerios’s job is to convince people food is a right, not a luxury.

The harrowing first ascent of the mountain’s West Ridge.

On the drone strikes that killed Anwar al-Awlaki and his U.S.-born son.

The sole survivor of a 1966 shipwreck tells his tale.

A collection of war stories told by women who have seen combat while serving in the U.S. military.

Fifty years ago, a gay, cross-dressing, black singer named Jackie Shane scored a surprise radio hit. A few years later, he disappeared.

“Dan Seavey stepped ashore the docks of Grand Haven, Michigan, armed with two of the most dangerous weapons known to man: booze and bad intentions.” The story of the early 20th century’s fiercest Great Lakes pirate.

A trip to an uncompromising cattle ranch.

In Ramapo, New York, the immigrant community and the growing population of Hasidic Jews had eyed each increasing wariness for years. Then the Hasidim took over the public schools, schools their children do not attend, and proceeded to gut them.

On the history of Earth Day and the failure of the modern environmental movement.

Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling needed funding for his ambitious video-game startup. Rhode Island politicians needed jobs and a vision for how to transform the state’s beleaguered economy. The story of a $75 million bet gone bust.

The growth of an immersive universe that is “part game and part soap opera and part shadow economy.”