From his arrival in New York as a penniless 22-year-old Dutch stowaway through years of obscurity until emerging as a major artist in his 50s.

Step 1: awkward high school senior passes himself off as a flirtatious female student online. Step 2: he cons his male classmates into e-mailing him sexually explicit images of themselves. Step 3: extortion.

At first, Don Huckstep was perplexed that his fiancée would abruptly cut off contact before a long-awaited trip to Italy. Then a bizarre and grisly set of discoveries unfolded.

When rescuers found Nathan Carman after seven days at sea, his mother had vanished without a trace. Did he kill her — and, years earlier, another member of his family?

Doug Schifter waged a one-man campaign to stop Uber from putting his fellow black-car drivers out of business. Then he decided to take his own life.

How prosecutors used bloodstain-pattern analysis to convict an innocent woman of murdering her son.

Oil-and-gas wells produce nearly a trillion gallons of toxic waste a year. An investigation shows how it could be making workers sick and contaminating communities across America.

A bizarre 1970 Arctic killing over a jug of raisin wine shows that we need to think about crime outside our atmosphere now.

A portrait of a toxic workplace.

On Eve Babitz.

Babitz thought she’d die at thirty; she’s now 78 and witnessing her own resurrection. Youth was not wasted on her, and she crammed her life into her sentences.

“I think talk shows have kind of lost that. It’s mostly about super famous people telling long, dull stories about their swimming pools or something.”

A young writer grows up with Alice Munro.

An oral history.

When adults like Billy Smolinski go missing, it’s hard to get the authorities involved.

Marital advice columns from the past.

At the bedside when a pregnancy ends.

Talking with the influential New York gallerist.

The author attempts to interview Grigori Perelman, a reclusive mathematical genius.

An interview with Pulitzer-winning food critic Jonathan Gold.

Trying to fix the Atlantic Ocean’s food chain.

A wide-ranging chat with the magazine editor.

The jury made a mistake when it convicted Abdul Raheem.

“I never attacked anyone weak. Only bullies, secure in their courts, bureacracies, fifedoms.”

Blazers and bloodbath near the 6 train.

Why three young undocumented activists intentionally got themselves detained.