Where Oil Rigs Go to Die
The life cycle of a drilling platform.
Best Articles
Smash
The comeback of Marty Reisman, the most flamboyant figure in the history of table tennis, and the self-proclaimed greatest hardbat player ever.
The Marriage Cure
In an Oklahoma City neighborhood usually left off city maps, the federal government is implementing its $300 million anti-poverty plan: teaching poor Americans how to get married.
Hot Wheels
Kids are driving Florida’s Pinellas County’s car-theft epidemic. It’s a dangerous — sometimes deadly — game.
The Genesis of the Gang
On how a childhood spent in New York City’s tenements led a 15-year-old boy to be convicted of murder.
Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die
Bill Conradt, a well-known prosecutor, never arrived at the house in Murphy, Texas, where police and a crew from NBC’s To Catch a Predator were waiting. So the crew, along with a SWAT team, went to Conradt.
Excerpts from 'Bones in the Desert'
From the Translator’s Note:
Just over two weeks ago, on April 3, the renowned Mexican writer and investigative journalist Sergio González Rodríguez unexpectedly passed away from a heart attack at age 67. [His book] Bones in the Desert is a far-reaching investigation into the still-unsolved murders of hundreds of women and girls in the communities surrounding Mexico’s Ciudad Júarez, on the US border with El Paso, Texas. In the years since its publication in 2002, Bones in the Desert has left an indelible imprint on the modern literature of the Americas, both through its own merits and its foundational influence on Roberto Bolaño’s 2666. In crafting a fictionalized version of Ciudad Júarez, Bolaño collaborated directly with González Rodríguez, relying on him for substantial “technical help” in answering questions about the nature of the murders, and eventually including him as a character in the novel.
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The Twilight Zone
An excess of people and an excess of desert.
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No Longer a Girl
The hallmarks that would come to characterize the official narrative surrounding the serial murders were already being established.
Tuesdays with Saddam
The diary of a Scranton, PA National Guardsmen tasked with guarding the highest profile prisoner in U.S history: a surprisingly amiable Saddam Hussein.
High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas
An oddball team of ship salvagers is tasked with uprighting a tipped two-football-field-long cargo ship before it sinks into the darkness of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.
The Fighter
A U.S. Marine’s journey from the Afghan war to an Illinois prison.
New York Is Killing Me
A profile of Gil-Scott Heron.
Why Cops Shoot
From 2009 to 2014, police in Florida shot 827 people. Many of these incidents were avoidable and unnecessary.
Crimetown, U.S.A.
The city that fell in love with the mob.
The Paranoid Style in American Politics
“American politics has often been an arena for angry minds.”
The High Price of Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Life
Young people who leave strict Jewish communities face a bewildering, lonely new world. One group helps them navigate it.
The Misfit
A profile of Rei Kawakubo, an artist of few words who changed women’s fashion.
Inside the Hunt for Russia’s Most Notorious Hacker
Searching for the world’s most prolific bank robber.
The Strange, Spectacular Con of Bobby Charles Thompson
Donors all over America opened their wallets for his United States Navy Veterans Association. Politicians all over Washington posed for grip-and-grins with him. But not only was he not a legitimate fundraiser for military families—he wasn’t even Bobby Charles Thompson.
Operation London Bridge: The Secret Plans for the Days After the Queen's Death
She is venerated around the world. She has outlasted 12 US presidents. She stands for stability and order. But her kingdom is in turmoil, and her subjects are in denial that her reign will ever end. That’s why the palace has a plan.
Into the Woods
At the age of 20, Christopher Knight parked his car on a remote trail in Maine and walked away. He had no plan. He had no tools. And he survived alone for 27 years.
Death Is Real
A day in the life of Mount Eerie’s Phil Elverum, in the wake of the sudden death of his wife when their daughter was four months old.
The Talented Mr. Young
Alan Young has been running the same scam for years: posing as a member of The Temptations and smooth-talking his way into luxury hotel rooms and prostitutes. Despite his clear charm, he admits he has “no skills other than being a con man.”
The World’s Biggest Diamond Heist
How $100 million in diamonds, gold, and jewelry disappeared from Antwerp Diamond Center’s super-secure vault.
The Fire on Harvard Avenue
How junk arson science convicted a mother of killing her own daughters.
Best Article Arts History Food
The Real American Pie
Mince pie was once more American than the apple variety. It was also blamed for “bad health, murderous dreams, the downfall of Prohibition, and the decline of the white race,” among other things. Then it disappeared.
