On the past, present, and future of gossip.

And unraveled behind the scenes.

What coronavirus can teach us about hope.

American conspiracy theories are entering a dangerous new phase.

A profile of the rapper and activist.

The planet’s tallest animal is in far greater danger than people might think.

The privately funded effort in danger of falling down.

Inside the Trump 2020 campaign.

On Jared Kushner and his relationship with his father-in-law.

“Uncertainty, it has been shown, is more painful than certain physical pain.”

One public defender’s fight against family separation.

Welcome to Toke-la-homa.

A writer reckons with his debts, both financial and personal.

How Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld became Yale Law pariahs.

An oral history of Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

The US election as witnessed by 25 reporters in 23 countries.

An account of the night last September when 15 Taliban, dressed as American soldiers, snuck onto one of the largest air bases in Afghanistan.

They are the most celebrated in the U.S. military. But hidden behind the heroic narratives is a darker, more troubling story of “revenge ops,” unjustified killings, mutilations, and other atrocities.

An essay on Alcor – “the Arizona cryonics company that has put the body of Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Ted Williams in cryogenic suspension, in the hope he may one day rise again” – and the desire to live forever.

Why the future feels frozen in time, as framed by Marshall McLuhan (“We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future.”) and William Gibson (“The future is already here; it is just unevenly distributed.”)

“Dan Seavey stepped ashore the docks of Grand Haven, Michigan, armed with two of the most dangerous weapons known to man: booze and bad intentions.” The story of the early 20th century’s fiercest Great Lakes pirate.

The story of three peace activists — a drifter, an 82-year-old nun and a house painter — who penetrated the exterior of Y-12 in Tennessee, supposedly one of the most secure nuclear-weapons facilities in the United States.

A trip to the South African Million Dollar Pigeon Race.

On 21st-century prospectors:

Shawn Ryan is the king of a new Yukon gold rush, the biggest since the legendary Klondike stampede a century ago. Behind this stampede is the rising price of gold, and behind this price is fear.

Just after midnight, Rye police arrived to bust a house full of partying teenagers. The kids refused to unlock the door, and parents and cops flooded the street. A minute-by-minute account of the standoff.