Reflections on two seasons of loss.

How Carl Foreman, while tangling with the House Un-American Activities Committee, turned a throwaway Western into an allegory for the Hollywood blacklist.

The annual tradition in the grape-growing country of South Africa’s Western Cape was that locals could gather fruit before it rotted on the vine. But this season produced a body amongst the rows.

Between 1996 and 2015, the number of working-age adults receiving federal disability payments increased dramatically — but nowhere more so than in rural America. This is one man’s story.

In the fall of 2015, Germany designated Sumte, population 102, as a sanctuary for nearly 800 refugees. What followed was a living experiment in the country’s principles.

Olathe, Kansas, became a global magnet for tech talent, thanks to plentiful jobs, cheap housing, and good schools. Then someone opened fire on a pair of Indian-born engineers.

The word was the Ia Drang would be a walk. The word was wrong. (Winner of the 1991 National Magazine Award and the basis for the We Were Soliders.)

A college student accused a powerful man of rape. Then she became a suspect.

By choice, for less than $2 an hour, the female inmate firefighters of California work their bodies to the breaking point. Sometimes they even risk their lives.

Survivors of the 2011 Japanese tsunami in a small town on the north-east coast are haunted by a split second decision at a local school.

Black people struggling with debts are far less likely than their white peers to gain lasting relief from bankruptcy. A style of bankruptcy practiced by lawyers in the South is primarily to blame.

North Idaho has become one of the most desirable places in the West for conservatives to relocate. So why is the local Republican party tearing itself apart?

A recent episode of This American Life was put together by reporters from Pro Publica based on this original reporting about the bubble-profiteering hedge fund Magnetar.

Developed by early computer engineers in their spare time, improved in University comp-sci labs, and ultimately sold in coffeeshops for ten cents per game. Inside one of the most influential games ever played.

The murder of Mickey Bryan stunned her small Texas town. Then her husband was charged with killing her. Did he do it, or had there been a terrible mistake?

The author travels to Mexico to meet a retired assassin and kidnapper, now himself a target of the cartels that once employed him.

A profile of "L.A.'s most adventurous eater," restaurant critic Jonathan Gold, who died Saturday.

Previously: a 2012 interview with Gold in The Believer.

Buried in media scholar Jonathan Albright’s research was proof of a massive political misinformation campaign. Now he’s taking on the the world’s biggest platforms before it’s too late.

Jeff Henry often said that his goal in life was to make customers of his family’s legendary water parks happy. It was a beautiful vision. Until it went horribly wrong.

Birds like Roseate Spoonbills and Burrowing Owls are ending up in the stomachs of hungry pythons and nile monitors. Is it too late to stop them?

An undercover federal agent behind a massive sting operation that took down dozens of gun-runners and drug-dealers tells all.

Almost 90 years ago, a young anthropologist was murdered in the field. The case still speaks volumes about sexual assault and how we explain it away.

In the poorest congressional district in the country, where thousands of people are arrested each year, one former cop with a complicated past made high-profile cases fall apart by insisting that the ends justified his means.

Discussions of character with the Late Show host.