A profile of “not just the toughest but the most corrupt and abusive sheriff in America.”

In 1916, a down-on-its-luck traveling circus hung its star elephant.

The importance of the sports metaphor in the American consciousness and why Lewis Lapham didn’t join the C.I.A.

Alex Haley interviews the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s number two - Malcolm X - in a Harlem restaurant.

Inside the C Street house in Washington and the little-known spiritual group behind it.

The author joins his father’s work crew, gutting out foreclosed houses in Florida and interviewing their former residents.

In the last decade, newsrooms across the country have adopted a “do more with less” strategy. It’s a kamikaze mission.

Pitching a no-hitter in the middle of a multi-day acid bender was only one of Dock Ellis’ many amazing exploits.

The story of two Canadian artificial intelligence visionaries who became bitter rivals and then both committed suicide in the same month.

How an aging trio of Irish ‘travelers’ criss-crossed America in a mobile home conning Home Depot out of over $1 million.

In the feral communities of Russia’s Far East, tiger poaching is among the few lucrative pursuits. This is the story of a tiger who fought back.

In Detroit, the aftermath of a reality-TV SWAT raid that killed a sleeping seven-year-old.

A report from Minnesota’s Angle Township, which was put in the U.S. instead of Canada by a map-maker’s error.

A profile of Yao Ming published during his second season in the NBA.

On Huck Finn, the book Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word, and the evolution of language and race in America.

A profile of Republican Eric Cantor: six-term congressman, new House majority leader, highest-ranking Jewish elected official in American history.

SNL in its grim twentieth season through the lens of first (and only) year cast-member Janeane Garofalo.

On existing as a girl in the boy’s club that is the world.

Two percent of humans can hear the Hum, a mysterious, low rumble in the distance. It might exist. It might be imaginary. It might be both.

Over a million people are buried in a potter’s field on Hart Island. Here are some of their stories.

David Roberts spent his life facing death in the mountains. Now he is facing a fatal prognosis.

Maurice Lerner missed his shot at the majors and landed in the Rhode Island mafia.

The bloody reign of Rodrigo Duterte, who was elected President of the Phillipines in May.