The author examines his closest relationships.

On Bitcoin, the world’s first “decentralized digital currency.”

Brutality persists at the famous prison.

The Western Hemisphere before Columbus.

On the old-man project.

On the best Super Bowl halftime show.

​The case against Anthony Fauci.

The water’s nearly gone in the San Joaquin Valley, and an old farmer sees the writing on the wall.

A report from the campaign trail.

Attending the Afterlife Awareness Conference.

How the Chilean miners survived.

On the ground in Wilmington.

On the friendship that made Google huge.

Cyril the Swan was the mascot for a low-level soccer club in the UK. He was known for fighting with other mascots. And refs. And opposing coaches. He also saved the club’s financial fortunes. Then the nine-foot-tall bird became the prime suspect in a serious assault.

On July 11, 2002, the researchers revealed that they had synthesized the polio virus, which had been wiped out in the US in 1979. It was the first time a virus had been created from scratch with synthetic DNA. The work was funded by the Pentagon in part to establish whether terrorists could pull off such a feat. The answer was yes.

Sixty years after Brown v. Board of Education, Southern schools have been resegregated.

A profile of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

A profile of Lonny Breaux, post-fame.

On reading and writing fan fiction.

An Aboriginal community’s attempt to maintain a 50,000-year-old way of life.

A profile of Chloë Sevigny, 19-year-old It Girl.

Inside a family of novelists.

New York’s Russian community in Brooklyn.

An instrument’s impact on a handful of Texans.

An oral history of Freaks and Geeks.