The 34-year-old virgin father-of-15 at the forefront of the controversial DIY sperm donation movement.

A profile of 25-year-old Lena Dunham, showrunner and star of HBO’s Girls.

The complicated case of Brigitte Harris, who, after years of abuse, accidentally killed her father by cutting off his penis.

How Christopher Hitchens, a former socialist, became one of the most vigorous defenders of the war in Iraq.

Frank Rich on The Promise, Jonathan Alter’s book about the first year of the Obama administration.

Why Darwin’s theory of sexual selection is wrong and “gayness is a necessary side effect of getting along.”

The brain of Henry Molaison gave science most of what it knows about memory. Dr. Jacopo Annese believes there’s even more to learn.

The article that spawned a school of thought; an elegy for the age of the megahit and a primer for the niche-based future.

A profile of Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson, published at the height of the controversy.

Scenario-based forecasts on the future of America, in the style of the C.I.A’s National Intelligence Estimate.

The enigmatic life and death of Bruno Zehnder, who obsessively photographed penguins in the ice fields outside of a Russian base in Antarctica.

“If genius is hard to define, madness is even more so.” One chess champion’s take on the tortured life of another.

A team of researchers has a controversial plan to root fake data out of science.

A profile of Beatty on the heels of Bonnie and Clyde.

On water in the West, climate change, and how the birth of modern environmentalism lies at the bottom of Lake Powell.

The life of a modern-day indentured servant involves a truck, mountains of debt, and moving goods for America’s biggest retailers.

Booker winner Howard Jacobson on the bumper crop of sex worker memoirs and what they say about our understanding of paid sex.

A profile of the radio legend who helped launch the career of Ira Glass and many more.

A 42,000-word, 3-continent spanning “hacker tourist” account of the laying of the (then) longest wire on earth.

How the killing of a 20-year-old woman upended a nation’s sense of itself.

A profile of Paul Manafort, “a great normalizer of corruption” who “weakened the capital’s ethical immune system.”

Forty years ago, a trio of student teachers created the most popular educational game of all-time.

With wildfires, heat waves, and rising sea levels, large tracts of the earth are at risk of becoming uninhabitable.