The N.S.A. claims it needs access to all our phone records. But is that the best way to catch a terrorist?

The story of Tyrone Hood, who served 21 years for a murder he didn’t commit, and the Chicago criminal justice apparatus that allowed a serial killer to go free.

The theme-park chain where kids learn to pilot a plane, pay taxes, and pretend to be adults.

How a young entrepreneur built a media empire by repackaging memes.

An essay on PTSD.

A profile of the most powerful woman in the world.

Superstar coders, like actors and athletes, now have agents.

The story of a New York City bar and its owner, Old John McSorley.

A jury recommends life in prison; the judged orders a death sentence.

After a Hasidic man exposed child abuse, his tight-knit Brooklyn community turned on him.

A profile of Chris Rock as he makes one last attempt to jump from standup to leading man.

The strange case of Kip Litton, road race fraud.

Scrutinizing the gluten-free craze.

On the origin of the essay.

The author of The Hot Zone on how geneticists can help contain the current outbreak.

A profile of Laura Poitras.

How a doctor and an S.A.C. trader got entangled in a financial scandal.

America’s underground Chinese restaurant workers.

On Leon Botstein and the future of Bard College, which he has run for four decades.

Sixteen-year-old Kalief Browder was accused of taking a backpack. He spent the next three years on Rikers Island, without trial.

ISIS vs. the Kurds.

A man, a woman, and a child negotiate their uneasy triangle in the days and weeks following 9/11.

"His briefcase sat beside the table like something yanked out of a landfill. He said there was a shirt coming down out of the sky."

Inside the fast-food labor protests.

A gospel singer comes out.