A dispatch from Lima, Ohio.

Inside the stronghold of Commander Pigeon, “collector of lost and exiled men.”

The bungled theft of a $6 million violin.

Jamie Smith said he was a co-founder of Blackwater and a former CIA officer. He appeared on cable news as a counterterrorism expert and he received millions in goverment contracts to train personnel. The money was real. The resume wasn’t.

How a small group of gamers has been able to “set the terms of debate in a $100 billion industry, even as they send women like Brianna Wu into hiding and show every sign that they intend to keep doing so until all their demands are met.”

After being diagnosed with metastatic liver cancer at age 43, Williams resolves to make the most of her “bonus time” with her young children between visits to specialists.

The weeks following a near-death experience.

On terminal inmates and those trying to save them.

On identifying the man who encouraged strangers to kill themselves over the Internet.

A step-by-step account.

On a mother’s decision to donate her daughter’s organs.

As the war begins to end, Iraqis confront a broken country.

As U.S. troops departed, Baghdad in ruins.

Inside the safe houses where Syrian youth protesters have retreated since the uprising.

An account of captivity.

An interview with Shadid.

On his enduring relevance.

A scholarly look at the 2004 hit.

A transcript of an interview timed to the release of Jay-Z’s book, Decoded.

An early profile.

David Johnson’s unrequited correspondence with Jay-Z.

On the psychological considerations behind breast augmentation.

During World War I, surgeon Harold Gillies and sculptor Anna Coleman Ladd created masks for disfigured soldiers. Gillies’ work, especially, served as the basis for modern surgical techniques.

A profile of the controversial “Dr. Schnoz,” author of My Beautiful Mommy, a children’s book about plastic surgery, and the doctor behind “Operation Chuppah,” which gave Orthodox Jewish women free nose jobs to attract husbands.

After learning that his twin girls will be born with cleft palates, Chernoff and his wife begin the long process of preparing for corrective surgery.

Plastic surgery on the parts most people don’t see.

“Hillary Clinton was never a shy person.”

Two biographies of Hillary Clinton do not get us any closer to understanding her.

On Clinton’s Arab Spring.

GROSS: I am just trying to clarify so I can understand.

CLINTON: No, I don't think you are trying to clarify. I think you're trying to say that, you know, I used to be opposed and now I'm in favor and I did it for political reasons. And that's just flat wrong. So let me just state what I feel like you are implying and repudiate it. I have a strong record. I have a great commitment to this issue and I am proud of what I've done and the progress we're making.

The drawbacks of being the front-runner.

There’s nothing simple about this candidacy—or candidate.