Longform

How the pop psychedelic author helped jumpstart the modern apocalypse movement after an alleged visit from “Quetzal-coatl, a mystical bird-serpent in Mayan myths.”

An ill-fated trip down the river with a group of anarchists.

On the culture of misogyny and abuse at one of the nation’s largest megachurches.

Their partnership lasted a mere four years, but transformed comedy forever. Mike Nichols and Elaine may give their first joint interview since breaking up 51 years ago.

“I read an article a few years ago that said when you practice a sport a lot, you literally become a broadband: the nerve pathway in your brain contains a lot more information. As soon as you stop practicing, the pathway begins shrinking back down. Reading that changed my life. I used to wonder, Why am I doing these sets, getting on a stage? Don’t I know how to do this already? The answer is no. You must keep doing it. The broadband starts to narrow the moment you stop.”

A mother on her autistic child’s progression and regression.

How the compulsion to explore is coded in the human genome.

The disappearance of the mysterious “Pakistani asset” that helped the CIA zero in on Bin Laden.

On joy, pleasure and Ecstacy.

A Ugandan bill that would threaten homosexuals with imprisonment, or in some cases death, has its roots in the shadowy American evangelical group known as The Family.

A history of food poisoning.

A rape case in which most of the evidence lies in the archives of Twitter and Instagram divides a football-crazed town of 18,400.

A nationally respected neurologist feeds secrets to Wall Street.

An amateur linguist loses control of his creation.

On high school basketball star Chris Tang and the pressures of being the “Great Yellow Hope.”

The life and times of Willie Nelson’s guitar.

A profile of Martin Short.

Ten years ago, Jack Whittaker won the largest lotto jackpot in history. Then he lost everything.

On the reality TV empire of Thom Beers, creator of Deadliest Catch.

“Oh God, everybody hates Jane Austen. They don’t have the balls to say it.”

Elegy for Aleppo.

Revisiting a 30-year-old beating death in St. Louis.