Inside the most destructive fire in American history—and why the West’s cities and towns will keep on burning.

“I admit it,” she says, in her hotel room. “I’m a troll. I’m the queen of the fucking trolls.”

Thea Hunter was a promising, brilliant scholar. And then she got trapped in academia’s permanent underclass.

In a supermax facility on US soil, inmates are force fed—and barred from sharing their stories.

Housing insecurity in the nation’s richest cities is far worse than government statistics claim. Just ask the Goodmans.

Decades on, a massive half-built monument in the Black Hills remains controversial.

The discovery of a legendary, lost shipwreck in North America has pitted treasure hunters and archaeologists against each other, raising questions about who should control sunken riches.

“What I learned about masculinity from my father, my father-in-law and my own transition.”

The author unearths the story of Frank Yerby, one of the the most prolific African-American novelists in history.

An early profile of Carole Baskin, proprietor of Big Cat Rescue in Tampa.

Antoine Yates spent three years living in New York City public housing with a 450-pound Siberian tiger named Ming.

In 1944, an eighteen year old boy became famous for throwing eggs at Frank Sinatra. Then he disappeared.

Florida’s tourism economy crashed, leaving dozens of low-wage workers trapped in a crumbling motel without electricity.

Humans have always sensed the ghosts of loved ones. It’s only in the last century that we convinced ourselves this was a problem.

The antics in postwar Nordic children’s books left propaganda and prudery behind. We need this madcap spirit more than ever.

Uber made big promises in Kenya. Drivers say it’s ruined their lives.

Before a disastrous blight, the American chestnut was a keystone species in eastern forests. Could genetic engineering help bring it back?

The world’s greatest animator, Yuri Norstein, hasn’t released a new film in 37 years.

Deana Lawson’s regal, loving, unburdened photographs imagine a world in which Black people are free from the distortions of history.

In Scott Kimball, the FBI thought it had found a high-value informant who could help solve big cases. What it got instead was lies, betrayal, and murder.

When a rash of sensational museum robberies stunned Europe, police zeroed in on a fearsome crime family—and a flashy new generation of young outlaws.

Their boat gone, they spent five days in the Atlantic Ocean without food or water, surrounded by sharks.

Why did Christie Smythe upend her life and stability for Martin Shkreli, one of the least-liked men in the world?

Inside the political battle over reproductive rights in Texas a decade ago.

393 Powell Street was a peaceful home until residents started dying in brutal, mysterious ways.