Longform

In the past the only people who wrote autobiographies or memoirs were very important, those who had a crucial role in the history of their own country—Napoleon, Goethe—or were witness to major events or people who had singular, adventurous lives. Otherwise, it is ridiculous to write your autobiography.

The unintended consequences of American funding in Pakistan.

How automated ‘execution algorithms’ are taking the world’s markets on a wild ride that few economists can even understand, much less control.

The investigation of 20-year-old Russian model’s fall from a Manhattan rooftop uncovers a string of mysteries and clues embedded within the insular world of international models and those who scout them.

A profile of Maine’s two U.S. senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.

The placebo response doesn't care if the catalyst for healing is a triumph of pharmacology, a compassionate therapists, or a syringe of salt water. All it requires is a reasonable expectation of getting better.

The questionable close relationship between a mobster/informant and an F.B.I. agent during a bloody Colombo crime family battle.

When he was 16, Mark Clements talked his way into four life sentences. Twenty-eight years later, he talked his way out.

On Hillary Clinton’s Arab Spring.

Manny Pacquiao, possibly the greatest boxer of his era and still in his fighting prime, on the campaign trail for a congressional seat in the remote, untamed Southern province of the Phillipines that spawned him.

Inside a chess master’s fiefdom.

The anatomy of a bungled, massively expensive undercover sting conducted by the Seattle Police Department.

On Haiti and why apocalypse, by definition, must include revelation.

What happened to Air France Flight 447?

On tragedy, mythology, and the spectacular crash of the Spider-Man musical and its creator, Julie Taymor.

The demise of an NFL player.

Confessions of a yellow journalist:

Let me say that I did very little faking, although there was no special prejudice against it, so long as the fake wasn't libelous.

Nearly 10,000,000 men were killed in the conflict, 65 million participated, and now we are left with two.

A bank robber tells the story of a successful heist.

In June, 1942, a German submarine dropped four young Nazi agents off on a Florida beach. Their mission was to blow up bridges, factories, and Jewish-owned department stores. Among them was Herbert Haupt, the 22-year-old son of a German-American family in Chicago.

The social rituals of the pansexual, bi-queer, metroflexible New York teen.

The story of the 1969 murder spree by Charles Manson and “Family” as told by those close to the case.

On recommitting to the Knicks after “a decade of dysfunction and delusion.”

On internships at Disney World, where “labor is meant to have an almost invisible quality.”