Vengeance, abuse, and the strange double standards of death penalty politics.

Arno Smit bilked millions out of Tulare County dairy workers (and at least one wealthy widow). Then he disappeared.

After a year of tumult and scandal at Tinder, ousted founder Sean Rad is back in charge. Now can he — and his company — grow up?

Can we be convinced that healthy food is delicious? On the new science of neurogastronomy and why we eat what we eat.

A trip to the zoo, Charlie Kaufman’s new film, and human despair.

A trip to Japan and a glimpse of our automated future.

On the science of being fooled.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself--and you are the easiest person to fool.

A profile of cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter, who has spent the last 30 years trying to replicate the human mind.

The complicated case of Michelle Kosilek, a murderer fighting for sexual reassignment surgery.

There are more than 22,000 homeless children in New York, the highest number since the Great Depression. This is one of their stories.

A profile of Evgeny Morozov, “either the most astute, feared, loathed, or useless writer about digital technology working today.”

The rise of an expensive, experimental stem-cell treatment in China and the medical tourism it attracts.

On children accused of sorcery in Congo.

On Christian Marclay’s film The Clock.

The strange life of Boston Corbett, the soldier who killed John Wilkes Booth in 1865.

On the unlikely survival (for the second time) of Kamaishi, Japan.

Pinch-hitting for an ailing Ted Kennedy, the then-candidate honors the Kennedy’s life of service and implores graduates to wed their lives to others:

Ted Kennedy often tells a story about the fifth anniversary celebration of the Peace Corps. He was there, and he asked one of the young Americans why he had chosen to volunteer. And the man replied, ‘Because it was the first time someone asked me to do something for my country.’ I don’t know how many of you have been asked that question, but after today, you have no excuses.

The intertwining histories of two men who defined twentieth century European style.

An investigation into the death of Victoria Arellano at a Los Angeles County immigration detention facility.

A profile of the up-and-coming New York politician, who at the time was toying with a run for mayor.

The disappearance of a legendary scavenger could have dire consequences for a swelling human population.

John Walker Lindh’s father on why his son is an innocent victim of the War on Terror.

On a failed attack in Spokane and the fragments of homegrown terrorism in the United States.