The story of Jeffrey Fowle, an Ohio man who tried to smuggle a Bible into North Korea.

The ups and downs of being an accidental viral sensation.

Phil Kennedy set out to build the ultimate brain-computer interface. In the process, he almost lost his mind.

“It’s odd, the older I get, the more I remember.”

What the first-sale doctrine means for the future of copyright.

The best-selling young novelist lay dead in a trash-strewn cottage on Ireland’s rugged coast for over a week before she was discovered.

Inside the world of special operations weather technicians, “the Department of Defense’s only commando forecasters.”

The difficulty of catching a “cocaine trafficker with his hands on the country’s levers of power.”

A profile of Jim Henson before the release of the first Muppet movie.

Caitlin Curran was fired from WNYC for attending an Occupy Wall Street protest. The author explains why her boss was wrong.

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

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

On the ever-expanding world of targeted online advertising.

A writer’s trip home to Hot Springs, Arkansas, and the racetrack inextricably linked with the histories of his family and his hometown.

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

The story of former Vikings linebacker Fred McNeill and the lasting impact of his concussions.

With flash, hip-hop echoes rock’s golden age.

When rock was at its peak in 1972, Americans earning the equivalent of $1m a year took just over 1 per cent of national income. In 2010, this group’s share of national income had grown to almost 10 per cent. At the same time, the average tax paid by these top earners almost halved. The rise of Jay-Z’s “new black elite” reflects the growth in numbers of the super-wealthy. But the opulence that he and West flaunt also reflects the growing estrangement of those at the top from the rest.

How the daily e-mail from Mike Allen, Politico’s star reporter, has become a morning ritual for Washington’s elite.

Tony Kushner and the burdens of being one of the last public intellectuals in American theater.

An investigation into Lashkar-i-Taiba, the group behind the 2008 Mumbai massacre, and why Pakistani authorities has not arrested their leaders.

The profile that led to the Massey Energy CEO’s resignation.

On the gap between how the world sees Goldman Sachs and how Goldman Sachs sees itself.

On the Cairo knifing of 82-year-old Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz and its aftermath.

The elite Iraqi “Golden Division” was trained by the US to hunt terrorists. But now they’re locked in a brutal street battle for control of Mosul.

How a Russian-born Canadian 23-year-old invented Ethereum, the first cryptocurrency to seriously challenge Bitcoin.