They were pillars of their communities and families, and they are not replaceable. To understand why COVID-19 killed so many young Black men, you need to know the legend of John Henry.

A personal history of Soldier of Fortune magazine and the mercenary-wannabes who read and wrote it.

“We can conclude at least two things with certainty about the tenants of One Hyde Park: they are extremely wealthy, and most of them don’t want you to know who they are and how they got their money.”

How a longtime gambling addict and a small band of his cronies manipulated both the game and betting exchanges from a tiny Berlin cafe, going as far as buying ownerships of teams in order to insure their failure.

During his nearly six years in the Air Force, Airman First Class Brandon Bryant flew hundreds of missions and logged almost 6,000 hours of flight time. He killed or helped kill 1,626 people. And he never left Nevada.

A visit to the French hideaway of Ira Einhorn, co-founder of Earth Day, who had avoided arrest on murder charges for nearly 20 years.

From our guide to fugitives for Slate.

“We must be grateful for the smallest of blessings. Last week I saw and heard some things that provided a measure of hope and nuance in these grim and hysterical times.”

The night the doctor behind the Scarsdale Diet was shot by his mistress, the impeccable headmistress of the elite all-girls boarding school Madeira.

The importance of the sports metaphor in the American consciousness and why Lewis Lapham didn’t join the C.I.A.

The little-understood history of the whales and how barnacles may be the key to understanding how giant mammals evolved underwater.

A history.

 The explosion of publishing created a much more democratic and permanent network of public communication than had ever existed before. The mass proliferation of newspapers and magazines, and a new-found fascination with the boundaries of the private and the public, combined to produce the first age of sexual celebrity.

It was the failed dream of the heir to the Frank-o-Matic sausage-link machinery fortune.

How a Mossad agent’s desperate bid to jumpstart his career led to the exposure of two top Hezbollah plants.

The story of Bowe Bergdahl, a soldier who walked off his base in Afghanistan only to be captured by the Taliban.

Jacqueline Kennedy, William Manchester, and the battle over the authorized account of J.F.K.’s assassination.

What the 1949 film Twelve O’Clock High still tells us about air combat and the burden of command.

A reporter encounters the echoes of family and the struggle for civil rights in Mississippi.

The President’s former lawyer, and the fall guy in his web of misconduct, looks like a victim as well as a perpetrator.

A trip to the French island of Réunion to report on a bloody battle between surfers and sharks.

The story of Kokie’s, and its gentrifying Williamsburg neighborhood.

On the “queer roots” of Disco, House, and beyond.

A profile of video game artist Shigeru Miyamoto, the man behind Super Mario Bros.

A remembrance of relationships formed when the author, at 13 and using a false identity, frequented hockey chat rooms.

On the downfall of Deutsche Bank.