How the China National Tobacco Corp., which manufactures 2.5 trillion cigarettes per year, came to make more money than Apple.

Jonathan Kos-Read’s long, strange trip to movie stardom.

Caring for a demented father.

A woman reels in the wake of her mother’s absence.

On the road with Johnson Zeng, who buys up the metal “Americans won’t or can’t be bothered to recycle.”

The creator of Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy offers advice to the Dartmouth class of 2014.

How an extreme libertarian tract predicting the collapse of liberal democracies – written by Jacob Rees-Mogg’s father – inspired the likes of Peter Thiel to buy up property across the Pacific

“If we don’t run, then we won’t achieve.”

The placebo response doesn't care if the catalyst for healing is a triumph of pharmacology, a compassionate therapists, or a syringe of salt water. All it requires is a reasonable expectation of getting better.

How an aging trio of Irish ‘travelers’ criss-crossed America in a mobile home conning Home Depot out of over $1 million.

An epilogue to Serpico.

Thoughts on the current era of online anonymity.

An oral history of the war in Afghanistan.

Fossils have become a hot new asset class. Paleontologists aren’t thrilled, but for Clayton Phipps and his peers, it’s a living.

A friendship born out of the ruins of a nation, a dangerous journey home, and a 40-year search for the truth.

Meet the smokejumpers of America.

How our memories become contaminated by inaccuracies.

A profile of author William T. Vollmann.

On the importance of the human microbiome.

The ragtag group of fighters from America and Europe who joined the fight against extremists in Syria don’t seem to know what they are doing.

Who is ‘Tawnya Grilth’?

Why our entire understanding of copyright is due for an overhaul.

How the state’s “restitution program” forces poor people to work off small debts.

A critique of Facebook.

On a parent’s relationship with unused embryos.