The Republican candidate works a room, as excerpted from Richard Ben Cramer’s biography of the senator:

No one can do that day after day, week after week, for years ... without some rock-hard certainty that can't be milled away by nonsense and stress. He has to know: Why him? And: Why now? ... He has to know that he is The One. And if he's strong enough to keep going-if he's able, smart, and lucky-then, he'll get to the final twist in the road, when things catch fire, he can see how his words make the people feel, he can feel how those words now matter to him. He can make all the difference just by walking into a room. There are thousands of people -- and they want him. He and his campaign fill the lives of people who are almost strangers, and he takes over the life of everyone dear to him. He has to, it's all right -- because it's that important. Now, he knows: Not only should I be President, I am going to be President!

In Colorado and beyond, a negotiated surrender in the war on drugs.

The story of Universe 25, a mouse utopia that became an overcrowded hell, and its implications for the future of humankind.

It was a 3-mile footrace. Thousands were in attendance. So how did Michael LeMaitre disappear?

The unlikely ascent of A.Q. Khan, the scientist who gave Pakistan the Bomb, and his suspicious fall from grace.

The coldest of cases: During 1884-85, seven women and one man were brutally murdered in Austin, Texas.

A tony bedroom community in Los Angeles, a kidnapping gone horribly wrong, and the birth of a teenage fugitive.

The story of Standard Motor Products, a 92-year-old family-run auto parts manufacturer, and the transformation of the U.S. manufacturing industry.

On the perils and poisons of mining for gold in southeastern Peru.

On caring for a bipolar parent amidst a broken mental health care system.

“Calça de veludo ou bunda de fora.” Why Neymar, one of the world’s best talents hasn’t taken the money and run.

April Savino, a teenage homeless runaway, lived in Grand Central Terminal from 1984 until 1987 when she committed suicide on the steps of a nearby church.

A profile of Rafael Pérez, an infamously corrupt LAPD officer and the inspiration behind the Vic Mackey character on The Shield.

On Sam Cooke, theme parties, and the importance of McDonald’s-related jingles when street performing.

On 30 years of Long Island politics.

Two officers discovered rampant corruption and criminal activity at the heart of Chicago’s police department. Then they were punished by their peers. A four-part series.

The untold story of Napoleon Hill, who practically invented the self-help scam through his 1937 book Think and Grow Rich.

Boko Haram has abducted thousands of children and trained them as soldiers. Four survivors tell their story.

The rise and fall of the “most far-flung, most organized, and most brazen example of homosexual extortion in the nation’s history.”

Leïla Slimani’s best-seller explores the dark relationship of a mother and her babysitter.

One mysterious death, then another, and another — all in the same house. The first two written off as a tragic coincidence, until the third shattered doubts.

How two Jewish American political consultants helped create the world’s largest anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.