On the slow death of a beached humpback whale.

On the appeal of astrology.

On the insanity of America’s gun laws.

On the history of American nationalism.

A profile of the actress.

On learning persuasion.

A profile of the director.

Inside the world of competitive fireworks.

The CIA’s declassified account of the two decades two young officers spent as captives after being shot down over China during the Korean War.

Inside the dynastic war between the heirs to rulership of the largest Hasidic sect in the world. The prize – all of Hasidic Williamsburg – may prove to be ungovernable.

How the author of Friday Night Lights spent more than half a million dollars over three years on “eighty-one leather jackets, seventy-five pairs of boots, forty-one pairs of leather pants, thirty-two pairs of haute couture jeans, ten evening jackets, and 115 pairs of leather gloves.”

A profile of the “smart person’s” astrologer, and the people who believe in horopscopes.

The history of blue jeans, “America’s greatest contribution to the global closet.”

A portrait of the Somali capital.

Deep inside the world of Cartoon Network’s most popular show.

Tourism at the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history.

On police brutality in New York and the race riots of 1964.

The impossible task of touring a tractor factory in post-Soviet Belarus.

The psychology of cults and the scholars who fight about it.

Inside Gibsonton, Florida, the carny capital of the nation.

On the phenomenal, disturbing influence of Ayn Rand.

Retracing the early economic steps of the Obama administration.

Fear, racism, and the historically troubling attitude of American pioneers.

The complex, highly evolved world of Moscow’s subway-riding stray dogs.