Vivia, an intellectually disabled woman, had long wanted a child but decided instead to adopt a doll.

What prompts a woman to exit society and marry God? Inside a modern convent in Texas.

How a childhood of anger led the founder of 8chan to create one of the darkest corners of the internet.

A journey to explore the rising authoritarianism in Hungary and its weirdest fringe: the people who believe they’ve descended from Attila the Hun.

A lawsuit against Harvard forces students to choose sides.

Prince had grand plans for his autobiography, but only a few months to live.

Texans receiver DeAndre Hopkins says he owes his career to his mom. When you hear her remarkable story of survival, you’ll understand his devotion.

Glory isn’t part of the deal when you go to work for the federal government.

Thomas Joshua Cooper risks his life to document the world’s remotest places.

An insider watches Kink.com prepare to leave the hundred-year-old armory it occupies in San Francisco.

A new genetic engineering technology could help eliminate malaria and stave off extinctions — if humanity decides to unleash it.

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

Eira Thomas’s company has used radical new methods to find some of the biggest uncut gems in history.

Inside the wildly ambitious effort to reimagine the classic musical for 2020.

Two well-liked Twitter employees accessed thousands of users’ private information and illegally passed it to the Saudi Royal Family, per the FBI.

A speech on the value of being alone with your thoughts, delivered to the plebe class at West Point.

How a group of 17 trans athletes came together last November to make history.

At 22, he single-handedly put a stop to the worst cyberattack the world had ever seen. Then he was arrested by the FBI.

How the the rush to direct-selling platforms like OnlyFans could change the adult industry forever.

What kinds of space are we willing to live and work in now?

Filipino teachers, hired to fill historic shortages in the South and elsewhere, fight their exploitation by opportunistic recruiters.

In 1986, two lovebirds busted out of a coed prison in a hijacked helicopter. They’ve been trying to escape ever since.

It was a fraught, utterly uncharted presidential transition—four years ago, from Obama to Trump. It was a prelude for so much that followed.

Sprawling ranches. Rare animals. Rich folks with guns. Welcome to the state’s booming business of stalking wildlife from around the globe.

With dozens of felines turning up dead around London, a pair of pet detectives set out to prove it was the work of a serial killer.