Afternoons with Altman and Allen.

For a year or two during the mid-1970s, living in New York, I was a moviegoer. I was in my early 20s then, working off and on, driving a cab, setting up the stage at rock shows, writing occasional pieces for The Village Voice. But there were also long empty spells. I tried to write some fiction and couldn’t, tried to read and could—but only for so long. I ended up going to the movies.

An 11-month investigation ends with a booster, now in prison for a Ponzi scheme, going public with details of how he spent millions on college athletes from 2002 to 2010.

[Shapiro] said his benefits to athletes included but were not limited to cash, prostitutes, entertainment in his multimillion-dollar homes and yacht, paid trips to high-end restaurants and nightclubs, jewelry, bounties for on-field play including bounties for injuring opposing players, travel and, on one occasion, an abortion.

Finally, the crowd broke for lunch, with those who paid $1,000 availing themselves of private workouts. The highest tier lunched with Paltrow and select panelists. The proles were relegated to wandering around the warehouse and converted parking lot for two hours, getting solicited by dream interpreters or standing in endless lines for free blowouts or manicures — services promptly halted once the panels resumed, no matter that some had spent well over an hour in line.

A trip to Turkey for a soccer game between bitter rivals and its accompanying madness.

Buddy Cianci, former Providence mayor and convicted felon, is running for the city’s top office. Again.

A profile of Costa Rica’s most famous bull, who is responsible for two riders’ deaths and a brand of craft beer.

The hunt for a secretive network of British men obsessed with accumulating and cataloguing the eggs of rare birds.

The story of a device that delivers electric shocks to students at a school for special needs.

A profile of Kermit Oliver, a reclusive, critically acclaimed artist who designs scarves for Hermès and works nights at the Waco post office.

“She scrolls, she waits. For that little notification box to appear.”

With prices spiralling, poachers are digging for ginseng in the North Carolina hills.

An interview with a Mexican-born American attorney who defended and eventually smuggled for the cartels in the ’90s.

Searching for Puddles the Clown, whose cover of Lorde’s “Royals” made him an Internet star.

Immigrant farmers are flocking to the poultry industry – only to become 21st-century sharecroppers for companies like Tyson.

On the producer Timbaland, then best known for collaborations with Missy Elliott, Aaliyah, and Ginuwine.

The life of Phyllis Frye, a pioneer in the fight for transgender rights.

For decades, airlines failed to turn a profit despite having a monopoly on the sky. This year they’re expected to make billions. Here’s why.

What the first-sale doctrine means for the future of copyright.

The best-selling young novelist lay dead in a trash-strewn cottage on Ireland’s rugged coast for over a week before she was discovered.

David Carr’s advice for the 2014 graduating class at the UC Berkeley School of Journalism.

The young people fighting for democracy will be back.

After an election deadlock that held the country hostage for months, two former rivals confront Afghanistan’s patronage and corruption.

Even for a high-powered “A-Type,” living on forged documentation is an endurance test.