On PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and the experience of covering AIDS in Africa.

“I write this with a baseball bat by the bed.”

Living the Amway life.

A turn in the orgy dome, half a hit of German-engineered acid and more adventures on the Playa.

The story of a new pancreas.

A trip to Antarctica.

How a 26-year-old cocktail waitress ended up running a private weekly poker game for some of Hollywood’s highest rollers.

On what we see and what we don’t.

“The case of Lisl Auman, who first wrote me from prison three years ago, is so rotten and wrong and shameful that I feel dirty just for knowing about it, and so should you.”

A former Eagle Scout attends the National Boy Scout Jamboree, aka Jambo, held at a brand-new, $100 million scouting wonderland called The Summit.

The author remembers his stepfather, E.B. White.

On the urge to live in a house you can't afford, the "acceptable lust" of American life.

An informational interview during which the author is advised, “Find a rich husband, and then you can work at whatever you like on the side, and it doesn’t matter, because you already have money.”

Growing up with Charlie Brown.

Transporting an instrument after a death in the family.

Some passions are more dangerous than others.

Why some immigrants can never escape their parents’ battles.

“Since we live in an age in which silence is not only criminal but suicidal, I have been making as much noise as I can…”

The author goes in search of his father’s days as a member of an elite club of sport parachutists.

On the experience of having a stroke.

On (not) getting by in the gig economy.

Notes from a month-long voyage on a massive container ship.

Searching for Puddles the Clown, whose cover of Lorde’s “Royals” made him an Internet star.

Memories of the old neighborhood, before everything changed.

The author gets a crash course in health care pricing after having his urethra fixed.