On the highly enjoyable, nearly fatal first experiments with laughing gas in late 18th-century London.

How Cassandro, who wrestles in drag, became a star Mexican luchadore.

Sexism and harassment in the freethought community and its implications for atheism’s future.

Posing for family survival in a society that values boys over girls.

On the seminal songwriter, who died four years ago today, in his final days before succumbing to dipsomania.

How a doctor and an S.A.C. trader got entangled in a financial scandal.

A profile of Griselda Blanco, aka the “Black Widow,” who pioneered the cocaine trade in New York and Miami.

A torrid phone sex affair begins with a random call in a motel and ends a year later with a face-to-face meeting.

Frank Firetti, a 54-year-old pool salesman in Virginia, and his fading American dream.

Each year, thousands of people pay to play eighteen holes of golf at Angola, “the largest maximum-security prison in the country.”

The rise of One Direction fanfiction that imagines the band members in relationships – with each other.

Why is an anti-virus software giant in the Belizean jungle surrounded by  gang members?

Profiles of people who live in their car after losing almost everything during the Great Recession.

Why a type of gasoline may be responsible for periods of increased crime in the U.S. and abroad.

From pinball prohibition in 1940s NYC to Dave & Buster’s, the rise and fall of the American arcade.

In search of the former boxing champ, who refuses to believe he has HIV.

The homeless population of New York City is higher than it’s been in decades. Nobody seems to notice.

The fight to vaccinate children in the border regions between Pakistan and Afghanistan as part of an attempt to eradicate polio worldwide.

Adventures in acedia, from Aquinas to Bartleby.

The author dives to the wreck of the Mohawk, where his uncle died in 1935.

Rethinking Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.

On the problems in “Dr. V’s Magical Putter.”

The stories of the 109 black men who have played quarterback in the NFL, from Fritz Pollard to Russell Wilson.

A tale of ambition, motherhood and political mythmaking in the race for governor of Texas.