To speak of the human as such, as the modernists did, is like taking a piece of the wild, putting it into a petri dish, adding bleach and antibiotics until more than half of what’s in there is dead and then celebrating the barely-living remains as “the human.” Provocatively put, the human is a sterile abstraction, a harmony of illusions.

Ah yes, you should also know that most of your colleagues are some of the biggest neurotics in the country, so you might as well get used right now to the way they're gonna be writing you five and ten page single spaced inflammatory letters reviling you for knocking some group that they have proved is the next Stones.

A profile of the photographer, who has been accused by several models of sexual abuse.

On the writer’s new book and tell-all style.

On a cruise with Syvlia Browne, the controversial psychic famous for telling distraught parents where their missing children are.

A profile of Ken Feinberg, lawyer who specializes in determining compensation after tragedies and disasters.

For online advertisers, probably most of it. An investigation.

On the Kunsthal heist and the murky economics of making money from stolen paintings.

On the restauranteur behind New York’s Gramercy Tavern and Shake Shack.

On Abbey Road studios, the Beatles, and modern record production.

One man describes his family’s tradition of delivering rhyming couplets at celebrations.

Sean Spicer and a new era in the briefing room.

An essay about what we’ll lose, and what we’ve already lost.

An interview with a Funny or Die writer after the entire editorial team was laid off.

The opioid’s potency has transformed the global trafficking—and policing—of narcotics.

Thirty-four years after the Bhopal gas leak, the abandoned waste pits are spreading poison and still destroying lives.

On the rise of alt meat and the decline of cattle.

After Fukushima, balancing the risk of another disaster against the rising danger of climate change.

“This disconnect between culturally mandated politics and the actual demonstrated preferences of most Americans has created an enormous reserve of unmet needs—and a generational opportunity.”

A shipping container spewing radiation appears mysteriously at an Italian port, prompting a larger look at the anonymous world of international shipping.

In a speech that’s getting a bit of flak for recycling some of his past lines, the stage- and screenwriter says it’s okay to make mistakes along the way:

And make no mistake about it, you are dumb. You're a group of incredibly well-educated dumb people. I was there. We all were there. You're barely functional. There are some screw-ups headed your way. I wish I could tell you that there was a trick to avoiding the screw-ups, but the screw-ups, they're a-coming for ya. It's a combination of life being unpredictable, and you being super dumb.

Riding through Detroit with the author of The Turner House.

Ardelia Ali was raped in 1995. Twenty years later, her attacker was convicted.