A writer bears witness to New York’s endangered species.

Did people first come to this continent by land or by sea?

In the 1880’s, a shabbily dressed man popped up in numerous America cities, calling upon local scientists, showing letters of introduction claiming he was a noted geologist or paleontologist, discussing both fields at a staggeringly accomplished level, and then making off with valuable books or cash loans.

"I think what Kanye West is going to mean is something similar to what Steve Jobs means. I am undoubtedly, you know, Steve of Internet, downtown, fashion, culture. Period. By a long jump. I honestly feel that because Steve has passed, you know, it’s like when Biggie passed and Jay-Z was allowed to become Jay-Z."

The author on his reverence for water.

The journey of a river from source to mouth resembles our own journey from birth to death, an analogy oft remarked, and yet the beginnings and endings of rivers are as fictional as those we impose on stories. There are headwaters to headwaters and no river ever really ends.

A diagnosis in question.

A profile of a doctor fighting Ebola in Uganda.

An American journalist on being kidnapped, tortured and released in Syria.

The life’s work of Cosmo editor-in-chief Helen Gurley Brown.

A profile of Chan ‘Cat Power’ Marshall adrift in Miami.

The false promise and double standard of integration in the Obama era.

Becoming a priest in Boston amidst a sex abuse scandal and church closings.

Life after scoring 100-plus points in a basketball game.

How humans evolve in the modern world.

The bureaucratic hell of enforcing legislation in Washington.

“I never attacked anyone weak. Only bullies, secure in their courts, bureacracies, fifedoms.”

Covering an election in Peru’s largest prison.

In North Georgia, two men feud over a quarter-mile property line.

A personal history of class in America.

Renting in one of the most expensive American cities.

On the biggest food fraud in U.S. history.

Investigating the spike in Afghan-on-American military murders.