Longform

Diary of a veteran gadfly.

A profile of a 51-year-old preparing himself for the inevitable.

The story of a suicide.

On Julian Jaynes, a Princeton psychologist who told the story of how humans learned to think.

Searching for a mysterious whirpool on an obscure map.

The history of blue jeans, “America’s greatest contribution to the global closet.”

The story of Lilly Grossman’s genome.

A profile of Frank Lucas, whose life was the basis for the film American Gangster, decades after his days as a kingpin.

On Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet, its uncanny knack for reflecting changes in Russian politics and culture, and the recent acid attack on its artistic director.

Investigating an insecure billionaire’s true worth.

On the legal and practical details of the drone strikes that killed New Mexico-born Anwar al-Awlaki and later, accidentally, his sixteen-year-old Colorado-born son.

A generation that has seen inestimable violence comes of age in Juarez.

An appreciation of the hometown team.

The fight for South Africa’s future.

On the brick stackers of Chicago.

A world-renowned physicist’s miscalculation.

On the career and legacy of America’s most popular wrestler.

How mergers between Catholic institutions and secular hospitals are changing the nature of health care.

An account of Yukon Quest, Alaska’s grueling, thousand-mile dog sled race.

“Modern writing at its worst does not consist in picking out words for the sake of their meaning and inventing images in order to make the meaning clearer. It consists in gumming together long strips of words which have already been set in order by someone else, and making the results presentable by sheer humbug.”

A profile of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

A son tries to make sense of his mother’s end.

On reading and writing fan fiction.