More than 500 Germans, including a former rapper named Deso Dogg, have joined ISIS in Syria.

The eccentric inhabitants of the world’s largest rock—Giant Rock, a humongous boulder deep in the Mojave Desert.

How a 63-year-old country singer went from a Nashville homeless shelter to #1 on the Swedish charts in under a year.

The pandemic of violence against women, the threats online, and the harassment on the streets are ongoing. But women’s voices assumed an unprecedented power in 2014.

As a child, Hugo Lucitante was brought to America from a tiny jungle village in Ecuador. His heart’s still back home.

It’s not just the virus that stands in the way, it’s bureaucratic logistics, and the frightening look of those hazmat suits.

A 58-year-old manuscript will become Harper Lee’s second novel, but questions about Lee’s care continue to swirl in Alabama.

A Kiwi entrepreneur is leading a revolution in recreational drugs: he’s trying to make them safe.

Squeamish though they might be about God, even the totally irreligious can find some comfort in praying.

Typee, the most popular book Melville published in his lifetime, was his memoir of Polynesia. Most of it was probably made up.

A weekend with the only person on Earth who can survive five venomous snakebites in 48 hours.

Ronnie O’Sullivan is the best snooker player in the world. He’s also the most tormented.

Joseph Mitchell used composites in his non-fiction, invented characters and added flourishes to his facts. Does it matter?

Kidnappers in Mexico have changed their business model from retail to wholesale—instead of extorting a handful of rich families, they are targeting thousands of undocumented migrants.

The last all-male clubs in Britain are contemplating admitting women. But a significant proportion of their members still want to preserve the spaces as male-only.

Worried about being kidnapped while on a business trip? A man in Florida teaches courses on how to avoid it.

One man’s quest to witness the “Bison Cull” in Yellowstone National Park.

How a high-powered lawyer and a rough-edged private detective ended up at the center of the biggest, dirtiest scandal in Hollywood history.

The life and death of Marla Ruzicka, a 28-year-old aid worker in Baghdad.

Ethnicity and primary education in Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Part of Guernica’s ‘Writer’s Bloc’ series.

On a young Arnold Schwarzenegger and the body-building culture of Venice Beach in the 1970s.

A profile of the Mexican newsweekly, a “lone voice” in reporting on the narcos.

How a group of men with nicknames like “Emperor” and “Spear Carrier” tipped the balance in South Sudan’s fight for independence.

The rise and fall of Bernard von NotHaus, the creator of the most successful (and some say illegal) alternative currency in the U.S.