An interview with Joseph Stalin.

Shirley Dygert had never jumped before. Dave Hartsock jumped for a living. Neither of them knew what to expect when the parachute failed.

On the volunteer “Wikipedians” who devote their free time to editing Wikipedia.

Adventures in acedia, from Aquinas to Bartleby.

One man’s quest to have a healthy leg amputated.

A New York lawyer’s attempt to secure an American aid worker’s release from ISIS.

What happened when Pakistan shut down the vitally important Karachi to Kabul trucking line.

An Iowa dad’s surprisingly short path from commentor to screenwriter.

A former sex worker interviews a longtime John on how it feels to pay for it.

“By the time we got to Woodstock 99 …” In a grim finale, the nineties get their Altamont.

More than 15% of Detroit’s adults have asthma, and 82% of black students go to schools in the most polluted parts of the city.

A central Massachusetts city enabled the author’s ancestors to move into the good life of the middle class. That move is more complicated today.

In the last year alone, over 150,000 people have risked their lives to leave.

Stephen Reed was “mayor for life” in Harrisburg, PA. Now he’s going to trial on 114 counts of bribery, theft, and fraud.

On his twelfth appearance on Letterman, Bill Hicks killed. The network refused to air it.

A case of mistaken identity leads to the prosecution of an ordinary Eritrean for human smuggling.

Thinking about launching your own media startup? You might want to consider my crazy story first.

The button that ruined the internet—and how to fix it.

“What people need to know is we’re not protesting churches. We’re protesting this church.”

On the people who lie about serving in the military and the detectives who try to expose them.

A plane crash survivor and trauma researcher turns her attention to the memories we’re making now.

Getting arrested was the best thing to ever happen to Jeremy Meeks.

The Piano Man of Yarmouk fled the ruins of Damascus to a life of criss-crossing Germany playing songs about his old neighborhood to huge crowds. Because of refugee law, he is paid nothing.

When a wealthy businessman set out to divorce his wife, their fortune vanished. The quest to find it would reveal the depths of an offshore financial system bigger than the U.S. economy.

In the not-so-distant future, all of our objects will talk to each other. They’ll make our coffee, find our keys, save our lives. The roadmap to a fully networked existence.