On the road with Johnson Zeng, who buys up the metal “Americans won’t or can’t be bothered to recycle.”

Growing up in a Toronto suburb while a serial rapist is on the loose.

The war between Major League Baseball and Alex Rodriguez, “fought with six-figure payoffs in the tanning salons and strip malls of South Florida.”

It comes from the soil of the desert Southwest. Inhaled, it can cause incurable, even fatal illness. And, thanks to global warming, valley fever is spreading fast.

The story of “the biggest retail hack in U.S. history.”

On claiming the conquistador Juan Ponce de León as an ancestor and the fictions we tell ourselves.

Supreme, founded by a secretive self-made millionaire in 1994, is the most influential streetwear brand in the world.

In New York City, every 4-year-old has access to free early education—even those whose families make up the 1 percent.

The business of sound.

How an obsessive New Age hustler brought the sound of the ocean to millions of home stereos.

An annual re-enactment drags America’s history of racist violence into the light.

ProDoula wants to revolutionize the touchy-feely doula profession — and make millions of dollars along the way.

On the O.J. Simpson verdict and the Million Man March.

In 2003, a platoon of American soldiers opened fire on a family in a Baghdad intersection. A decade later, one of the shooters tracks down the survivors.

How mergers between Catholic institutions and secular hospitals are changing the nature of health care.

The economics of Woonsocket, where one-third of residents rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

On the American teenager who was kidnapped by Islamic militants while on vacation in the Philippines.

A son’s memory of the father he lost at 13, excerpted from The Magical Stranger.

An oral history of the 2003 World Series of Poker, as poker went mainstream in America and online players invaded the competition.

On the dangerous glut of visitors looking to conquer Mt. Everest, where there is sometimes a two-hour wait to climb the Hillary Step.

Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe build the most powerful Tea Party organization in the country. Then a feud threatened to undo everything.

“Violence, being instrumental by nature, is rational to the extent that it is effective in reaching the end which must justify it.”

The last great brawling sports team in America—Reggie, Catfish, Goose, Gator, and the Boss—remember their fallen leader.

Meet Mark Millar, the brains behind our era’s most violent, ingenious comics.

A turn in the orgy dome, half a hit of German-engineered acid and more adventures on the Playa.