How the Caltech basketball team, losers of 310 straight conference games, figured out a formula for winning.

The case for why a cup of joe is about to become a luxury item.

A profile of 36-year-old curator Loïc Gouzer, who has made millions for Christie’s.

Behind a financial fraud lay a secret plan to create a “mothership for con artists worldwide”:

Gamboa's tale involves secret ore deposits, hidden stocks of Soviet nuclear armaments, the Queen Mary ocean liner, portions of Antarctica, a new version of the Bible, allegations of fake deaths and miraculous resurrections, and a collection of some of the most colorful aliases ever to grace America's criminal and civil case dockets. (According to court documents, Korem also answers to the names Tzemach Ben David Netzer Korem and Branch Vinedresser.)

Public-health officials are confronting dangerous ideas as much as a deadly disease.

American conspiracy theories are entering a dangerous new phase.

An essay on televangelists and a missing mother.

Inside Facebooks war on hate speech.

On India’s Covid catastrophe.

On Black revision, repayment, and renewal.

The organization is listening to criticism — and changing.

Inside the battle for how America snacks.

Searching for a mysterious whirpool on an obscure map.

Searching for answers 40 years after a Brooklyn man threw acid in the face of his 4-year-old neighbor.

An investigation into the steady dismantling of safety nets for injured workers.

Eleven years ago, three-year-old Audrey Santo fell into a pool. She nearly drowned. Much of her brain died. She cannot speak, can only barely move. And every Wednesday, pilgrims show up at her family’s house, ready for a miracle.

Thousands of people have waded into New Mexico’s high desert searching for a small chest filled with millions in gold, jewels, and jade. Randy Bilyeu never made it back.

The anatomy of a scandal.

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

A profile of the comedian who’s “not so funny anymore”:

Jon Stewart has made a career of avoiding "Whooo" humor. He has flattered the prejudices of his audience, but he has always been funny, and he has always made them laugh. At the Juan Williams taping, however, at least half of Stewart's jokes elicited the sound of Whooo! instead of the sound of laughter. He's been able to concentrate his comedy into a kind of shorthand — a pause, or a raised eyebrow, is often all that is necessary now — but a stranger not cued to laugh could be forgiven for not laughing, indeed for thinking that what was going on in front of him was not comedy at all but rather high-toned journalism with a sense of humor. Which might be how Jon Stewart wants it by now.

Requiem for a viral hit.

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

In the midst of a national crisis, mothers addicted to drugs struggle to get off them — for their babies’ sake, and their own.

A cloud enthusiast becomes an advocate for a new type of cloud.