A profile of Jill Abramson from her first weeks as executive editor of The New York Times.

On public radio and the emerging genre of shows inspired by This American Life.

The haunted past of Amy Bishop, a University of Alabama neurobiologist who shot six colleagues during a staff meeting.

Long before the likes of Kim Kardashian, Marie Bashkirtseff sought to secure celebrity through curation of “personal brand.”

How warnings of AI doom gave way to primal fear of primates posting.

The constant discomfort of a genital injury creates a covenant of pain. It is impossible to think about anything else.

In the film bullets approach in slow motion a series of glistening roundels, resembling condoms just taken out of their paper wrappings. Most of the bullets go right through, leaving a clean hole. But the last roundel in the film collapses slowly, wrapping itself around the bullet like a blanket on a laundry line hit by a wayward football. It is a piece of artificially bred human skin, reinforced with eight layers of transgenic spider silk, the material spiders produce to spin their webs.

Translated from the original Dutch, exclusive to Longform.org.

An interview with the ‘media ecologist’ on corporations, feudalism, the Dark Ages, the birth of currency, debt, how PR was invented, and why—

"...Any man that has a mortgage to pay is not going to be a revolutionary. With that amount to pay back, he’s got a stake in the system. True, he’s on the short end of the stick of the interest economy, but in 30 years he could own his own home."

The controversy-filled world of shipping pallets.

The story of a new pancreas.

The life’s work of Cosmo editor-in-chief Helen Gurley Brown.

Forty years after its release, the story of “Free to Be… You and Me.”

The challenges of parenting genius.

A profile of the late actor.

On commercial diving, the third most deadly profession.

A profile of the late-night host.

The history and meaning of taxidermy in American museums.

A profile of the Van Halen frontman.

The persistent, tragic behavior of professional athletes.

Research into mind-altering drugs is back.

On the militarization of America’s police forces.

The shadowy cartel of doctors that control U.S. healthcare.

The life, work, and early death of writer Shirley Jackson.

On Ron Latimer, the strange, elusive publisher of great poets, including Wallace Stevens.

A technical explanation of the real program to sabotage Iran’s nuclear facilities.