Lessons from the death of a venture-backed, Facebook-dependent, millennial-focused news site.

What happens when a wealthy patron wears out his welcome in the “strangest, most conflicted place in all of Texas”?

A growing body of research suggests that trees can communicate and cooperate in the wild.

Why audio never goes viral.

An ode.

A profile of the man who helped invent the modern art of presidential spin and came to embody the blurry line between journalist and government official.

The excerpts from a diary of an anonymous Russian special-forces officer who served twenty tours of duty in Chechnya during the Second Chechen War (1999-2009).

In 1974, John Patterson was abducted by the People’s Liberation Army of Mexico—a group no one had heard of before. The kidnappers wanted $500,000, and insisted that Patterson’s wife deliver the ransom.

On a pair of Israeli psychologists who between 1971 and 1984 “published a series of quirky papers exploring the ways human judgment may be distorted when we are making decisions in conditions of uncertainty.”

“There has to be some pleasure in this job, and that’s it. To go around in disguise. To act a character. To pass oneself off as what one is not. To pretend.”

A Covid diary: This is what I saw as the pandemic engulfed our hospitals.

For centuries, everyone from archaeologists to amateurs pillaged artifacts — and human remains. Now, the FBI is cracking down on those who continue to dig.

How to understand the real-world value of things that are worth nothing and everything at once.

Searching for answers 40 years after a Brooklyn man threw acid in the face of his 4-year-old neighbor.

A profile of the deadliest sniper in American history, who was murdered last month by a fellow soldier.

The outing of a failed writer who spent years anonymously grinding axes on Wikipedia.

On H.H. Holmes “an old hand at corpse manipulation and insurance fraud,” who built a house of death in 1890s Chicago.

Virginia authorities possess DNA evidence that may exonerate dozens of  convicted men. Why won’t the state say who they are?

Rabbi Barry Freundel said he would help dozens of women convert to Judaism. In the process, he secretly videotaped them naked.

After 13 years of war, the United States has helped create a nation ruled by drug lords.

An investigation into the steady dismantling of safety nets for injured workers.

Overcrowding in prisons leads to doubling up inmates in solitary confinement, regardless of their homicidal intentions or mental health.

The story of Martin McNally, who hijacked a plane in 1972. Among other crimes.

Inside the big and not especially scientific business of lavender and frankincense.