Immune systems don’t make for clean narratives, even as we expect them to keep us pure.

We are all going to die. So what does it look like?

On the psychological damage punitive isolation inflicts upon Guantánamo and American prisoners alike.

How a blind, destitute man became a world-class composer while living on the streets of New York.

Uncovering the real story behind Capote’s Hand-Carved Coffins.

Academics are convinced it’s an intelligent satire.

He built it as a “portal into a world of quiet.”

What happened to one of the most hated basketball players in NCAA history after playing a single season at Georgetown.

Doug Dodd was a drug kingpin in high school. And now, like the narrator of a Scorcese film, he wants to tell his own story.

The hockey legend’s new life as a medical icon for a questionable stem-cell treatment.

For the members of UCLA’s undocumented immigrant club, going to school means fighting for an education most students take for granted.

How an L.A. high school dropout became an enforcer for Mexican cartels and ended up on the F.B.I. Most Wanted List.

The story of how Washington blew its best shot to do something on climate change.

Inside the conflict that has caused more deaths than any since WWII—with no end in sight.

An interview with R. Crumb on how he adapted Genesis into comic form.

Are we at war? The U.S. government’s evolving response to cyber security and its impact on privacy.

The cops thought they had captured a fugitive. They had not. Elias Fishburne was a hairdresser from Maryland and was going to jail.

On a Duke student’s now infamous Powerpoint presentation of her sexual history; binge-drinking, post-feminism, and Mario Kart.

On the longstanding human fascination with a light source we could borrow but not share.

How a group of Queens high schoolers changed music forever while barely managing to remain on speaking terms.

“There’s no blueprint for remediating a radioactive town and then moving people back into it.”

A profile of 36-year-old curator Loïc Gouzer, who has made millions for Christie’s.

A profile of Ken Griffey, Jr., six years after he last played a baseball game.

The lip-syncing app Musical.ly claims that it has signed up 50% of American teens.

The story of a home invasion, a torture session, and one lawyer who nearly killed another.