On the current state of the global economy and the inevitable decline of the U.K. and the U.S.:

A decade-long slowdown would accelerate this shift in global wealth and power and would be a grim thing to live through, but from a world-historical perspective it might not be a game-changer: it might just be the non-scenic route to the place we’re going anyway.

A profile of Zooey Deschanel.

Is the desire in teens to switch their sex a mental disorder that needs treatment?

A profile of gallery owner Paula Cooper.

A profile of the R.E.M. frontman.

A profile of Bob Fishman, the impresario of CBS’s NFL production crew.

A report from campus after the rape allegations against members of the lacrosse team.

On a breed at risk.

A profile of celebrity astrophysicist Neil Tyson.

A pre-recession essay on becoming extremely wealthy.

A history of Soul Train’s Chi-town origins.

Taking the measure of the president, with a view to history.

A report from the freediving word championships.

A trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The Mouth of the South is leading a relatively quiet life.

How Don Johnson won $15 million playing blackjack over a four-month period.

A report from the KKK’s 2012 Faith and Freedom conference in Arkansas:

It's quite disconcerting in this modern age to be in a room full of white people who are all spouting the most vile racist slurs that one can imagine, openly, while everyone else laughs and applauds it. There is a Twilight Zone feeling to it, as if you'd stumbled into a secret clubhouse where white people can say those forbidden things—the Valhalla of dumb racist jokes.

The toll of being a cop on the most successful force in the country.

An undercover cop infiltrates a group of British activists, befriending and then betraying them.

From prison, a member of the Earth Liberation Front tells her story.

An investigation into the true identity of a high school basketball player.

Is creativity in our genes? A self-made scholar’s search for the answer.

For a half-century fires have burned under Centralia, PA.

A profile of filmmaker Michael Haneke.