A profile of Jordan at 50.

The girlfriend who wasn’t and everyone who bought it.

Bobby Riggs, the mob and “The Battle of the Sexes.”

The life and sudden death of NASCAR’s Dick Trickle.

How sports channels extort cable subscribers.

A series of mysterious, dangerous interactions in a bathhouse.

A series of linked fantasies, veering from the whimsical to the grave.

The appearance of a “mole man” reflects the past and realities of a hardscrabble town.

A party game drives a woman to reflect upon a history of manipulation.

Greek heroes and gods roam suburban America.

From 1976 to 1986, one of the most violent serial criminals in American history terrorized communities throughout California. He was little known, never caught, and might still be out there. The author, along with several others, can’t stop working on the case.

William Sparkman Jr., a census worker, was found hanging from a tree in rural Kentucky. He was naked, hands bound, with the letters “FED” written across his chest. Inside the investigation into how—and why—he died.

After a botched bank robbery in 1990, Sture Bergwall, aka Thomas Quick, confessed to a string of brutal crimes. He admitted to stabbings, stranglings, incest and cannibalism. He was convicted of eight murders in all, and after the final trial he went silent for nearly a decade. But a few years ago, Bergwall came forward again—there was one more secret he had to tell.

How a killer and his teenage accomplice used listings for “the job of a lifetime” to lure their victims, all down-and-out single men, to the backwoods of Ohio.

The haunted past of Amy Bishop, a University of Alabama neurobiologist who shot six colleagues during a staff meeting.

In a Plano bowling alley one night, Bill Fong came so close to perfection that it nearly killed him.

The strange case of Kip Litton, road race fraud.

The story of a high school star who died minutes after hitting a game-winner to end an undefeated season, and the family and friends he left behind.

A youth wasted on pro-level Ultimate Frisbee.

In Argentina, where the fútbol underworld controls everything from t-shirt vending to murder, and “rowdy gangs” have turned the stadium into a battleground.

How a Mexican drug cartel makes its billions.

How the U.S. lost out on iPhone work.

How a loathsome band makes gobs of money.

Reporting undercover from inside the online-shipping industry.

Frank Firetti, a 54-year-old pool salesman in Virginia, and his fading American dream.

The emerging political consciousness of Silicon Valley.

On recreational genetics and the vulnerability of family secrets.

Inside the real program to sabotage Iran’s nuclear facilities.

How the city will drown.

Boomtown San Francisco, as seen from the “Google Bus.”

Traveling with a sex tourist to the Uzbek city of Tashkent.

Cycles of boom and bust in the drilling town of Williston, N.D., as seen from the perspective of an itinerant dancer filling one of three slots at the only strip club in town, Whispers.

Entering her thirties single and adrift, the writer heads to San Francisco to spend time with Kink.com’s Princess Donna Dolore and attend a gangbang “where all the men were dressed as panda bears.”

Investigating San Francisco’s OneTaste, which promises personal and professional success through the practice of orgasmic meditation.

A visit to Tokyo’s first co-sleeping cafe, where one can pay a set fee to sleep next to a woman in 20 minute increments, though spooning, being patted on the head, and a change of pajamas are extra.

A profile of Kermit Oliver, a reclusive, critically acclaimed artist who designs scarves for Hermès and works nights at the Waco post office.

A profile of the singer as he took to the stage for the first time in a dozen years.

A profile of Fiona Apple.

The Grateful Dead’s afterlife.

Blockbusters in the age of “corporate irony.”

A profile of the Mexican newsweekly, a lone voice in reporting on the narcos.

The story behind the story that ended Dan Rather’s career.

On the Daily Mail’s dominance of England.

A profile of Rebekah Brooks, who started as a secretary at News of the World and became CEO of News International by 41, developing an incredibly close relationship with Rupert Murdoch along the way.

The history of Pitchfork and its prescient take on the relationship between culture and consumption.