The stories of the eleven men who died on the Deepwater Horizon.

On the rise and fall of the professional sports bettor.

The epic battle to save the islands that inspired the theory of evolution.

A behind-the-scenes account of the tense negotiations, involving Gorbachev, Kohl, Bush, and Thatcher, that led from the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall to a reunified Germany. (Translated from German.)

The surreal afterlife of the once-ascendant Dubai, where “the legacy of oil has made everything worthless.”

The birth of the Beastie Boys—an oral history on the 25th anniversary of Licensed to Ill.

The physical rigors of pregnancy tangle with the personal ambitions of a war photojournalist, without limiting her in the least.

Frank Rich on The Promise, Jonathan Alter’s book about the first year of the Obama administration.

Scenario-based forecasts on the future of America, in the style of the C.I.A’s National Intelligence Estimate.

On water in the West, climate change, and how the birth of modern environmentalism lies at the bottom of Lake Powell.

New research on children’s behavior.

The idea that a young child could have psychopathic tendencies remains controversial among psychologists. Laurence Steinberg, a psychologist at Temple University, has argued that psychopathy, like other personality disorders, is almost impossible to diagnose accurately in children, or even in teenagers — both because their brains are still developing and because normal behavior at these ages can be misinterpreted as psychopathic.

Dillie Nerios’s job is to convince people food is a right, not a luxury.

On the trail of a group of thieves stealing the fanciest wine out of San Francisco’s fanciest restaurants.

In 1966, Anton LaVey introduced the world to the Church of Satan. The 1980s saw a “Satanic Panic” in the form of abuse charges brought against child-care workers and suburban parents. Today, the author joins a group of Satanists for afternoon tea at the church’s global headquarters in a “bland New York college town.”

A profile of Grace Coddington, creative director of Vogue and break-out star of The September Issue.

South of San Francisco, in a fertile corner of California that feeds much of the country, working families are sleeping in shelters and parking lots.

On the future of Britain’s finances.

An oral history of the University of Texas Tower massacre.

A profile of Sage Kimzey, the 20-year-old king of rodeo.

The mysterious death of one of college basketball’s most promising coaches.

An accidental evening with Yeats, in the spring of 1937.

The life of one of America’s bloodiest hitmen.

When I was 27, I quit my job to travel and ski-bum, and by that point I had managed to save a small sum that could float me for a year. I called it my fuck-you money, because if I was ever in a situation I didn’t like—stuck in a job or with a boyfriend I wanted to leave—I could say fuck you and go. Living in ski towns is how I learned the dirtbag lifestyle, and to my surprise I took to it naturally and with enthusiasm.