Two percent of humans can hear the Hum, a mysterious, low rumble in the distance. It might exist. It might be imaginary. It might be both.

A report from the campaign trail.

Can we be convinced that healthy food is delicious? On the new science of neurogastronomy and why we eat what we eat.

Suzan Russaw is 70 years old. She lived in affordable Palo Alto housing for decades. Then, in 2013, she was forced to move into her car. On the new homeless of Silicon Valley.

A profile of Killer Mike, the self-described “gangsta rap suburban father” whose speech about Ferguson went viral last fall.

Inside Zappos as it transitions to something called a “Teal organization” that involves no managers and what amounts scouting merit badges and something called “People Points.”

The meanings of coiffure, from follicle to shaft.

The Chinese want to steal our genetically-engineered grain secrets. Why?

Visiting with the Christian fighters defending Iraq’s Nineveh Plains.

Inside the home funeral movement.

Dave Wilsey was among the American soldiers who liberated Dachau. The letters he left behind complicate the story.

In Arkansas, a small cottage industry of lawyers arranges adoptions of the babies of Marshall Islands immigrants. But are parents only giving up their children based on a cultural misunderstanding?

The rise and fall of “America’s most exciting black scholar.”

The controversial owner of the Dallas World Aquarium once nearly caused a riot over pygmy sloths.

Mamoru Samuragochi’s story turned out to be too good to be true.

The disappointing tenure of Uruguay’s great lefty hope.

America’s pregnancy leave policies – or lack thereof – continue to bear no relationship to the reality of being pregnant. It’s time for something to give.

A longtime NGO worker on how big ideas end up hurting international aid.

How do you start closing the gap between rich and poor? Convince the rich to do it themselves.

Sixteen years after he was exposed as the most fraudulent journalist of his generation, Stephen Glass is confronted by an old friend.

Inside the stronghold of Commander Pigeon, “collector of lost and exiled men.”

“Since 1932, the Gulf of Mexico has swallowed 2,300 square miles of the state’s wetlands, an area larger than Delaware. If no action is taken, the missing Delaware will become a missing Connecticut, and then a missing Vermont.”

Tech investors gave Seth Bannon, co-founder of the seemingly surging startup Amicus, over four million dollars, despite knowing almost nothing about him.

Caring for a demented father.

A profile of author William T. Vollmann.