Lester Cotton’s transformation from reluctant football player to top Alabama recruit, and the hopes and dreams of a neighborhood that ride on his shoulders.

Being friends with Susan Sontag was thrilling, but also “shot through in the end with mutual irritation.”

In the deep ocean, a swimming sea-worm called a “green bomber” can throw sacs of light when attacked.

The story of Nicole Davis, a 25-year-old woman diagnosed with breast cancer six months into her pregnancy.

Paul Krugman breaks down the basics of climate change economics, from Arthur Cecil Pigou to Capitol Hill.

An emerging school of therapy says that scripting your dreams while awake could eliminate the worst ones. Not everyone thinks that’s healthy.

Fifty-four days after his group’s Everest climb turned tragic, Krakauer first told the story of what had gone wrong.

In Detroit, the aftermath of a reality-TV SWAT raid that killed a sleeping seven-year-old.

A profile of Yao Ming published during his second season in the NBA.

A profile of Esquire features writer Chris Jones. Plus: the Jones archive on Longform.org.

SNL in its grim twentieth season through the lens of first (and only) year cast-member Janeane Garofalo.

A profile of the congressman turned morning show host, who spends his free time working on a musical about Donald Trump.

How the Robin Hood of gamblers got ensnared in a money laundering scheme led by former football players.

A young Brazilian couple from “an impoverished northeastern city that’s been described as ground zero of the Zika epidemic” struggle to care for their daughter.

Did a forgotten black gumshoe inspire the famous works of both Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett?

Gwen Wright was raised in dozens of foster homes. A new housing experiment could spare her son the same fate.

Stephen Reed was “mayor for life” in Harrisburg, PA. Now he’s going to trial on 114 counts of bribery, theft, and fraud.

Hanging out with a new celebrity class: the teen kings and queens of social media.

What happens to the people who film famous incidents of police violence.

No contemporary artist has used natural history to tell the kind of stories that painter Walton Ford tells.

The true love story of Peanuts.

The story of Akai Gurley before he was killed by a New York City police officer.

How the godfather of “fratire” went from chronicling his drunken sexual conquests to ghostwriting Tiffany Haddish’s memoir.

What happens when you put a classroom on wheels and park it in the poorest neighborhoods of San Francisco?