Alanis Morissette, before the making of Jagged Little Pill.

An autopsy of the San Jose Mercury News.

On the arrival of Formula 1 in India.

Bill Russell, race, and the NBA of the 1960s.

On the “horrible weirdness” of Kim Jung Il’s Korea.

A profile of legendary Houston socialite Becca Cason Thrash.

A profile of Michelle Williams.

A profile of Harold Hamm, oil baron.

Inside the world of targeted marketing.

The story of Southwest Airlines.

How the world’s biggest casino ran out of luck.

The inside story of the Affordable Care Act.

On the Daily Mail’s dominance of England.

A profile of Candy Barr—porn star pioneer, burlesque legend, Texas folk hero.

A history of the cell phone ringtone.

Many recent hip-hop songs make terrific ringtones because they already sound like ringtones. The polyphonic and master-tone versions of “Goodies,” by Ciara, for example, are nearly identical. Ringtones, it turns out, are inherently pop: musical expression distilled to one urgent, representative hook. As ringtones become part of our environment, they could push pop music toward new levels of concision, repetition, and catchiness.

On the possibility of “fluid intelligence.”

Controversy over the alleged gold standard of forensic evidence.

One man’s stories from the early days of the NBA.

A posthumous profile of Whitney Houston.

A painter’s dogged, doomed pursuit of the perfect $100 bill.

A history of the fowl.

“Robert Victor Sullivan, whom you’ve surely never heard of, was the toughest coach of them all. He was so tough he had to have two tough nicknames, Bull and Cyclone, and his name was usually recorded this way: coach Bob “Bull” “Cyclone” Sullivan or coach Bob (Bull) (Cyclone) Sullivan. Also, at times he was known as Big Bob or Shotgun. He was the most unique of men, and yet he remains utterly representative of a time that has vanished, from the gridiron and from these United States.”

“Adaptation is one explanation of how a lot of executives stay alive. As the fish in the Silurian rivers began to develop swim bladders in order to live in shoal waters, so American executives have developed certain compensating features. The process can be observed particularly in the big cities where conditions are the most trying. Executives have developed an insensitivity to noise, an uncanny time sense (needed in commuting), and an attunement to the city’s terrifying rhythms. Instead of trying to escape the phenomenon of modern life they fling themselves at it.”

The Horace Mann School’s secret history of sexual abuse.

A profile of Fiona Apple.