How a U.S. law intended to reduce dependence on fossil fuels has unleashed an environmental disaster in Indonesia.

Home-funeral guides believe that families can benefit from tending to—and spending time with—the bodies of their deceased.

A husband’s stroke, the Australian bushfires, and a trip to the Great Barrier Reef.

Trump transformed immigration through hundreds of quiet measures. Before they can be reversed, they have to be uncovered.

Coping with a brother’s suicide.

We tell stories about the dead in order that they may live, if not in body then at least in mind—the minds of those left behind. Although the dead couldn’t care less about these stories—all available evidence suggests the dead don’t care about much—it seems that if we tell them often enough, and listen carefully to the stories of others, our knowledge of the dead can deepen and grow. If we persist in this process, digging and sifting, we had better be prepared for hard truths; like rocks beneath the surface of a plowed field, they show themselves eventually.

Oliver Stone wanted a hit—and the chance to put America’s most iconic dissident onscreen. The subject wanted veto power. The Russian lawyer wanted someone to option the novel he’d written. The American lawyer just wanted the whole insane project to go away. Somehow a film got made.

The undoing of Tina Brown.

In defense of fiction.

The dark world of online murder markets.

A profile of organizational psychologist Adam Grant, who argues that the key to success comes from helping others.

Why hundreds of Buddhist monks moved from Taiwan to Prince Edward Island, buying up thousands of acres of land in the process.

Barack Obama wanted to endorse gay marriage on his own timetable. Joe Biden had other plans.

An interview with Joseph Stalin.

Adventures in acedia, from Aquinas to Bartleby.

One man’s quest to have a healthy leg amputated.

A New York lawyer’s attempt to secure an American aid worker’s release from ISIS.

What happened when Pakistan shut down the vitally important Karachi to Kabul trucking line.

An Iowa dad’s surprisingly short path from commentor to screenwriter.

“By the time we got to Woodstock 99 …” In a grim finale, the nineties get their Altamont.

More than 15% of Detroit’s adults have asthma, and 82% of black students go to schools in the most polluted parts of the city.