The author and his daughter make a pilgrimage to witness greatness.

How a brilliant self-made software programmer from South Africa single-handedly built an online startup that became one of the largest individual contributors to America’s burgeoning painkiller epidemic. In his world, everything was for sale. Pure methamphetamine manufactured in North Korea. Yachts built to outrun coast guards. Police protection and judges’ favor. Crates of military-grade weapons. Private jets full of gold. Missile-guidance systems. Unbreakable encryption. African militias. Explosives. Kidnapping. Torture. Murder. It's a world that lurks just outside of our everyday perception, in the dark corners of the internet we never visit, the quiet ports where ships slip in by night, the back room of the clinic down the street.

The author expounds on culture and crime in the early 90s:

Yes, I know there are sensational tabloid crimes everywhere and the closeness to the Manhattan media nexus tends to magnify everything. But even so, that was always true. There's just no denying that something has changed in the past decade, that, as our bard Billy Joel sings on his new album, there's "lots more to read about, Lolita and suburban lust." But why? Why is this Island different from all other islands? And why are so many Long Islanders suddenly running amok?

Exploring the riddle of Morgellons disease: sufferers feel things crawling under their skin and hardly anyone believes them.

In 1945, a fire tore through the home of George and Jennie Sodder. Four children escaped; five vanished.

An internet pioneer loses hope in the promise of web culture.

A profile of lawyer Jacques Vergès, who died yesterday after decades spent defending war criminals, terrorists and dictators.

The lost dream of Korleone Young, a high school basketball star who skipped college and flamed out after only one NBA season.

For 18 months, Coatesville, Penn., was besieged with an improbable number of arsons.  But who started the fires – and why?

A profile of filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar during the 2004 Cannes International Film Festival.

The international battle over 17 tons of coins discovered by an American deep-sea treasure hunting company.

How one woman’s sexual assault by four University of Oregon football players in 1980 unwittingly led to the state’s expansive free speech protections.

A report from the border of ISIS territory in Iraq, where civilians are battling to survive.

In his own final days, a Right to Die activist tells the story of his secret, illegal assisted-suicide service.

There are two roles to play in the new world of on-demand everything: royalty or servant.

Beatrice Munyenyezi told her New Hampshire neighbors that she was refugee from the Rwandan genocide. Half of that was true.

John Friend, who founded a new school of yoga, says the practice should be about both exercise and spirituality. Oh, and making money.

How Irv Teibel pioneered the capturing and repackaging of nature’s acoustics.

A Marxist archaeologist uncovers traces of fugitive slave settlements deep in the Great Dismal Swamp.

The story of Jennifer Frey, a sportswriting prodigy who drank herself to death.

A year in the life of Gwen Woods, after her son was killed by police.

A walkout mostly failed to secure more funding for schools, but it has spawned a movement of politically engaged Okies.

World-famous Houston surgeon Bud Frazier spent decades developing a revolutionary device that could save millions of lives.

The actual story behind those viral college acceptance videos out of T.M. Landry.

How an undercover oil industry mercenary tricked pipeline opponents into believing he was one of them.