Welcome to Toke-la-homa.

On trying, and failing, to qualify for the USA Olympic Marathon Trials.

Mo Pinel spent a career reshaping the ball’s inner core to harness the power of physics. He revolutionized the sport—and spared no critics along the way.

On the curious life of Archibald Butt, confidant to President Taft and tragic victim of the sinking Titanic.

As much as the narrative of Butt’s heroism meant to the family, to the White House, to the military, it seems all too cinematic. The reality is that the experience was probably a great annoyance to him, right up until the moment it became a nightmare.

“They think of us as pests, so they are trying to drive us out of our homes, for what is the Republican drive for our self-deportation if not a plan of fumigation?”

“Love purifies. Suffering never purified anybody; suffering merely intensifies the self-directed drives within us. Any act of love, however--no matter how small--lessens anxiety's grip, gives us a taste of tomorrow, and eases the yoke of our fears. Love, unlike virtue, is not its own reward. The reward of love is peace of mind, and peace of mind is the end of man's desiring.”

The author's first published article.

The story of Attila Ambrus, who was released from jail this morning in Hungary. Nicknamed the Whiskey Robber because witnesses always spotted him having a double across the street prior to his heists, Ambrus only stole from state-owned banks and post offices, becoming a Hungarian folk hero during his seven years on the lam. While on his spree he was also the goaltender for Budapest’s best-known hockey team and was arguably the worst pro goalie ever to play the sport, once giving up 23 goals in a single game.

Excerpted from Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts.

Is the Chinese government behind one of the boldest art-crime waves in history?

The life and times of James McClintock, the man behind the famed H.L. Hunley who also may or may not have faked his own death.

On the holy city of Canudos, and other attempts at better living “by the dispossessed and marginalized the world over.”

“For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.”

Six months after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, a member of the Presidential commission that investigated the crash presents his personal findings.

A critique of Davis Guggenheim’s Waiting for ‘Superman’.

Erich Spangenberg is in the business of owning other people’s ideas. He makes a fortune.

“It’s more than soup.”

Kidnapping and international adoption.

Remembering Patrice O’Neal.

The world’s fastest growing economy isn’t China; it’s the “unheralded alternative economic universe of System D” aka the $10 trillion global black market.

What makes a great show?

On the clip that captured a society falling apart.

A physician becomes convinced he’s dying.

How the veterinary industry went corporate.

Two very different fates at the Chicago Marathon.

On the modern era’s answer to James Baldwin.

A jailhouse interview.

A reporter returns to My Lai.