How the culture of academia helped Amy Bishop, a University of Alabama scientist who murdered colleagues during a faculty meeting, fall apart.

The detective work that led to the recovery of a trove of stolen Nazi art.

How three friends and a team of frat brothers made a fortune smuggling people along the most heavily patrolled stretch of highway in Texas.

A murder involving one of the India’s celebrity couples has mesmerized the country and exposed some of its darkest fears.

Tracing the path of one of the world’s most in-demand minerals from deadly mines in Congo to your phone.

Some of the wealthiest people in America are getting ready for the crackup of civilization.

A profile of philosopher Timothy Morton, who wants humanity to give up some of its core beliefs.

A teenager in a dreary suburb of Paris live-streams her own suicide—and acquires a morbid kind of digital celebrity.

On Bob Woodward’s “rather eerie aversion to engaging the ramifications of what people say to him.”

The rise of Mike Pence’s chief of staff Nick Ayers and what it reveals about post-Citizens United politics.

A profile of a dresser of celebrities.

A Dutch gallerist made thousands of forgeries and passed them off as the work of real artists. When he was caught, a new con began.

His hotel heists had detectives convinced they were on the trail of one of the world’s most skilled con-men.

How the President could endanger the official records of one of the most consequential periods in American history.

Many people dream of building their own home in the country, but one family finds more of a struggle than they bargained for.

Hundreds of families have flocked to Colorado hoping medical marijuana will relieve their children’s epileptic seizures. This is the story of one family’s migration.

Policing the world of experimental research in the age of TED talks and Freakonomics.

The fall of PCCare247, an Indian company in the business of selling fixes to problems that didn’t exist.

The story of one of the 74,000 children who come to this country each year alone and undocumented.

A hardcore night of Dungeons & Dragons with artist Zak Smith and his coterie of porn star players.

Inside the stronghold of Commander Pigeon, “collector of lost and exiled men.”

A profile of Christine Quinn, odds-on favorite to be the next mayor of New York City.

A look at the Mexican drug wars from the point of view of a narco’s mistress in Juárez.