On disposing of a dead sea lion, and the pitfalls of memory.

Before ending up in Rikers, Jeremy Wilson — if that’s his real name — had portrayed himself as a Scottish-born DJ, a Cambridge-trained thespian, a Special Forces officer, a professor at MIT, an Apple executive, a soldier seeking asylum in Canada to escape anti-Semitic attacks in the United States, and an Irish mobster. Among others.

In the summer of 1982, three Waco teenagers were savagely murdered for no apparent reason. Four men were ultimately charged with the crime. One was executed, two others were given life sentences, and a fourth was sent to death row only to be released after six years. They all may have been innocent.

Henry Heimlich saved untold choking victimes when he invented his maneuver in 1974. Since then, he’s searched in vain for another miracle treatment—pushing ethical boundaries along the way. Now at the end of his career, Heimlich has hired an investigator to find an anonymous critic working full-time to destroy his legacy.

Visiting the site of the Chernobyl meltdown.

Blockbusters in the age of “corporate irony.”

On Jeff Bezos, Amazon, and the genesis of the Kindle.

The rewards and pitfalls of selling haunted objects.

The art of the voiceover.

Exploring the darkest corridors of the Internet.

An autopsy of the San Jose Mercury News.

A history of the fowl.

How smallpox went from eradicated disease to the ideal weapon of bioterrorists.

On the underground doctors unleashing the healing powers of hallucinogens.

On the new art of interrogation.

The billionaire founder of Renaissance Technologies turns to science.

How Fortnite became the Instagram of gaming.

The secret lives of Facebook moderators in America.

On the history and origin of the crab rangoon.

Inside the campaign of Joe Biden, “the least formidable front-runner ever.”

The search for the genetic distinction that allows certain animals, humans included, to be domesticated.

Meet the man responsible for third-wave coffee—and the Frappuccino.

The British and Irish have coined some fabulous terms to describe nature and landscrape. “Doofers” is the Scots’ term for horse-shit; “clinkerbell” means icicle in Hampshire.

Colin Powell’s battle with the Bush administration.