John Demjanjuk has had a huge year. Twenty years after being sentenced to die, he finally climbed to the pinnacle of the Wiesenthal Center's list of Nazi war criminals this April, shortly after the Germans filed the arrest warrant that allowed the OSI to put him on the jet to Munich.

Whoever wants to enchant America’s conservative base as well as independents looking for a steady hand amid economic upheaval must try to grasp what has carried Cain this far — what not only shields him from spectacular attempts at self-immolation but also, with each incident, seems to make him stronger. Why, with this candidate, do the laws of physics seem not to apply?

How to kick heroin in 24 hours.

To be mentally ill in Ghana.

On learning to jog.

A work trip to Turkmenistan.

Imagine a community of great possibilities and prosperity built by Black people for Black people. Places to work. Places to live. Places to learn and shop and play. Places to worship. Now imagine it being ravaged by flames.

How a Mossad agent’s desperate bid to jumpstart his career led to the exposure of two top Hezbollah plants.

A trip to the French island of Réunion to report on a bloody battle between surfers and sharks.

Erik Weihenmayer has climbed Mount Everest, raced across the Moroccan desert, and is about to kayak the Grand Canyon’s deadliest rapids—all without being able to see.

The fight to vaccinate children in the border regions between Pakistan and Afghanistan as part of an attempt to eradicate polio worldwide.

“More than a café, the shop is a carpentered-together, ingenious mechanism—a specialized tool—designed to keep Carrelli tethered to herself.”

A former student and high school coach travel to California to kidnap the coach’s daughter, an adult film actress.

How a herbalist who used to swim naked with Allen Ginsberg became one of conservative talk radio’s most vicious—and listened to—hosts.

On America’s relationship with the right to bear arms, from the Founding Fathers to the Black Panthers and the Ku Klux Klan.

Skyrocketing prices for yarchagumba, a rare fungus prized as an aphrodisiac, has led to Nepali villagers to turf wars—and possibly murder.

Climate change is giving rise to intermating between previously distinct species. Welcome to a world with “grolar bears.”

The N.S.A. claims it needs access to all our phone records. But is that the best way to catch a terrorist?

The voices we generally hear on public radio reflect only a narrow range of experiences, particularly with regards to race. There’s a cost to that.

Everyone just wants to know if he’s going to the football game.

From Hong Kong to Bangkok to the Golden Triangle, the author searches for something everyone says no longer exists: an opium den.

A psychological theory emerges to explain why young Americans are taking a while to grow up.

A trip to the Russian baths helps author start to see the good in his terrible eyesight.

“Oh my God, the NFL is using every trick in the book to market to kids.”

The life of Kimi Peck, a former screenwriter, once married to Gregory Peck’s son, who turned to “saving” stray dogs.