Chris Barry was born into Washington D.C. royalty. He died alone, essentially homeless, just a year after losing a race for his father’s former seat.

His father was a notorious figure in Providence organized crime. Boxing offered a different path for Jarrod Tillinghast—but it didn’t stop him from slipping into his old ways and robbing drug dealers with his neighborhood friends.

Most tycoons give big to one or two universities as their children approach college age. David Shaw gave to seven.

Contemplating Gaudi’s unfinished masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia church, as the controversial finishing work is completed.

On the Calorie Restriction movement, the scientifically-supported belief that the key to a very long life is to eat as little as possible.

Housing insecurity in the nation’s richest cities is far worse than government statistics claim. Just ask the Goodmans.

Inside the relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan:

The U.S. government has lied to itself, and to its citizens, about the nature and actions of successive Pakistani governments. Pakistani behavior over the past 20 years has rendered the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism effectively meaningless.

Memories of the author’s teenage years, when his father pulled up stakes on a comfortable life in Baltimore to reinvent himself as the head of a S&L bank in Los Angeles.

Tensions eat away at a relationship between a musician and his girlfriend.

Tom Monaghan started Domino’s. Mike Ilitch started Little Caesers. Both became billionaires, both live in Detroit, both are now over 75. They’ve made very different decisions about how to spend their fortunes.

For nearly a decade, Laura Albert lived a double life as troubled teen turned cult writer J.T. Leroy, writing books, chatting constantly with celebrities, and convincing another woman to appear as J.T. Leroy in public.

Would you rather have one marshmallow now or two in a few minutes? How a kid’s answer to that question can predict his or her life trajectory.

Premier Cru’s “pre-arrival” cases were deeply discounted. When too many failed to arrive, a multi-decade wine Ponzi-scheme fell apart.

Last December, a Canadian pharmaceuticals executive and his wife were found strangled in their home. No one knows who did it or why, but everyone has a theory.

Michael Savage used his position at San Francisco’s Presidio to stir up a controversy over Japanese American internment.

In 1970 South Central, pigeon fancying was serious business. But there’s a deeper story behind why these Black Angelenos are entering their fifth and sixth decade raising Birmingham Roller pigeons.

In 1963, William Zantzinger was convicted of manslaughter in the death of Hattie Carroll and then immortalized – and somewhat defamed – by Bob Dylan. What’s he been up to since then?

It started as simple teenage rebellion but ended up tearing Syria apart, setting in motion events that continue to rock the Middle East — and the world. The boys behind the graffiti would become unlikely revolutionaries and reluctant refugees. Not all of them would survive the upheaval they helped unleash.

“As a matter of historical analysis, the relationship between secrecy and privacy can be stated in an axiom: the defense of privacy follows, and never precedes, the emergence of new technologies for the exposure of secrets. In other words, the case for privacy always comes too late.”

The early days of Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers.

An exposé of the New York Police Department’s Civilian Complaint Review Board.

Fighting to the finish in the most dangerous region of Afghanistan.

A profile of Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Prime Minister.