The activists, politicians, and social trends that led to 2012’s gay marriage victories.

A trip to CES, “what a World’s Fair might look like if brands were more important than countries.”

The White House’s unprecedented crackdown on reporters.

A Hells Angel informant’s path from destruction to redemption and back, and a family’s trouble with witness protection.

The homeless population of New York City is higher than it’s been in decades. Nobody seems to notice.

The author dives to the wreck of the Mohawk, where his uncle died in 1935.

The stories of the 109 black men who have played quarterback in the NFL, from Fritz Pollard to Russell Wilson.

A study of the Mississippi River, its history, and efforts by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to hold it in place.

How Thomas Drake, senior executive at the NSA, came to face some of the gravest charges that can be brought against an American citizen.

On why we need to stop questioning Wikipedia and start thinking about what comes next.

A field trip to the video gamey world of the modern trader.

A profile of driver A.J. Foyt on the eve of what was supposed to be his final Indy 500.

The anatomy of a 1930 epidemic that wasn’t:

Was parrot fever really something to worry about? Reading the newspaper, it was hard to say. “not contagious in man,” the Times announced. “Highly contagious,” the Washington Post said. Who knew? Nobody had ever heard of it before. It lurked in American homes. It came from afar. It was invisible. It might kill you. It made a very good story. In the late hours of January 8th, editors at the Los Angeles Times decided to put it on the front page: “two women and man in Annapolis believed to have 'parrot fever.'"

How a major American company helped bring Charles Taylor to power in Liberia.

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

Citizens of Shishmaref, Alaska are watching their beaches disappear and their homes fall into the sea. Is it too late to relocate?

Creating, and then attempting to dismantle, a fake persona based on a man who died in 1984.

Lester Cotton’s transformation from reluctant football player to top Alabama recruit, and the hopes and dreams of a neighborhood that ride on his shoulders.

It isn’t easy to find out the truth about the benefits of male circumcision.

“It took me 32 years to come out. This is what happened when I did.”

Miriam Carey died at the hands of the Secret Service. Over a year later, her family has no real answers about what happened to her.

The Scandinavians had an idea that seems wacky to Americans: make a prison safe and livable.

Coastal erosion is leading more than a few Britons to watch their homes crumble into the sea.

What happens when a successfully funded Kickstarter product fails to launch?

“Quebec is the Saudi Arabia of maple syrup,” and it has the authoritarian regulatory regime to prove it.