The story behind the iconic photograph of the Holmes family, hiding in the water amidst violent Tasmanian bushfires.

How CREW and MUSTIE decide what books stay in a library's circulation.

A portrait of Ben Todd, a DIY champion of the emerging music scene in Nashville.

How the feds went after Thick Neck, Guilty, Stomper, Gunner, Lucky, Menace, and the rest of the Amernian mob in Los Angeles.

The CEO is 32. The CFO is 28. Their startup is the second-largest burger chain in the country.

On the highly enjoyable, nearly fatal first experiments with laughing gas in late 18th-century London.

How Cassandro, who wrestles in drag, became a star Mexican luchadore.

Sexism and harassment in the freethought community and its implications for atheism’s future.

Posing for family survival in a society that values boys over girls.

How a doctor and an S.A.C. trader got entangled in a financial scandal.

A profile of Griselda Blanco, aka the “Black Widow,” who pioneered the cocaine trade in New York and Miami.

Frank Firetti, a 54-year-old pool salesman in Virginia, and his fading American dream.

The rise of One Direction fanfiction that imagines the band members in relationships – with each other.

Why is an anti-virus software giant in the Belizean jungle surrounded by  gang members?

Profiles of people who live in their car after losing almost everything during the Great Recession.

Why a type of gasoline may be responsible for periods of increased crime in the U.S. and abroad.

Rethinking Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.

On the problems in “Dr. V’s Magical Putter.”

A tale of ambition, motherhood and political mythmaking in the race for governor of Texas.

An essay on BR Ambedkar, Mahatma Gandhi and the battle against caste in India.

How a group of vigilante cat-lovers seeking the hooded figure who suffocated a kitten in an internet video found a sadistic killer.

The mysterious death of Alfred Wright in the shadow of a town’s history of racial violence.

A story written about Twitter and one its founders, Evan Williams, when the company’s chief source of revenue was subletting desks in their partially filled office.

In 1960, beer heir Adolph Coors III was kidnapped and murdered. A look back at the crime and the man who committed it.