The author, on book tour when the pandemic set in, reflects on what could have been worse—and what could be better.

How a 16-year-old from suburban Connecticut became the most famous teen in America.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen grew up to make New York’s most desirable clothes. But can even perfection survive the pandemic?

Hundreds of workers at a Tampa lead smelter have been exposed to dangerous levels of the neurotoxin. The consequences have been profound.

Hundreds of workers at a Tampa lead smelter have been exposed to dangerous levels of the neurotoxin. The consequences have been profound.

As the pandemic rages across the country, one team of fact-checkers contends with a post-truth dystopia.

A Thanksgiving story about the limits of human empathy.

Rick Ross was born William Leonard Roberts II in 1976, and he borrowed his stage name (and the associated big-time cocaine-selling hustler persona) from the legendary L.A. drug lord Freeway Ricky Ross. But the website MediaTakeout uncovered a photograph of William Leonard Roberts II when he was a Florida corrections officer. Most people thought that'd be the end of his career. Freeway Ricky Ross then sued him for stealing his name. None of it mattered. Rick Ross the rapper just sold more records.

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.

Finding personal stories buried deep in the YouTube comments.

Meet the smokejumpers of America.

Predicting the first 100 days.

The psychology of trolling.

Life when you’re seven feet tall.

A profile of the vice president.

On the craft of reporting poverty.

“For hours, days, I fixated on the patch of sunlight cast against my wall through those barred and grated windows. When, after five weeks, my knees buckled and I fell to the ground utterly broken, sobbing and rocking to the beat of my heart, it was the patch of sunlight that brought me back.”

The life and times of Willie Nelson’s guitar.

On the brick stackers of Chicago.

The con man who cost Google $500 million.

Inside the world of high-priced online reputation management.

The last days of Jean-Michel Basquiat.

The undoing of Tina Brown.

How the modern pig farm came to be.