Four unhealthy, bearded, mostly unknown comedians from Atlanta tour 3,020 miles in a van.

When IP mapping goes awry dozens of strangers show up to the same home again and again looking for their stolen gear.

A profile of former club kid Michael Alig, who is approaching release after serving 17 years in jail for murder.

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

A report from the border of ISIS territory in Iraq, where civilians are battling to survive.

A profile of a 51-year-old preparing himself for the inevitable.

Documents from Edward Snowden show that the intelligence agency is arming America for future digital wars—a struggle for control of the Internet that is already well underway.

Li Dao, a young Minnesota nurse, appeared in suicide chat rooms, contacted the most desperate, and made pacts to die with them via webcam. After some in the forum caught on, Dao disappeared; or rather, Dao had never existed at all. She was a middle-aged man. And he may have encouraged and witnessed dozens of live suicides.

Park ranger Paul Fugate vanished on an Arizona trail more than forty years ago. Investigators are still looking for him.

The behind-the-scenes publishing saga of Joseph Heller’s 1961 novel.

For years, Joshua Milton Blahyi, better known as General Butt Naked, was one of Liberia’s most feared warlords. Then he became a pastor. Today he visits the families of his victims to seek forgiveness for his sins.

A story from the end of the earth.

The answer to the disparity in death rates has everything to do with the lived experience of being a black woman in America.

How toxic fumes seep into the air you breathe on planes.

How India disenfranchises Muslims.

Unpacking the empty promises of the minimalism craze.

A year after the tragedy of Hurricane Maria, the 51st state has become the favorite playground for extremely wealthy Americans looking to keep their money from the taxman. The only catch? They have to cut all ties to the mainland (wink, wink).

For a century, the humble paper towel has dominated public toilets. But a new generation of hand dryers has sparked a war for loo supremacy.

How Juarez became the murder capital of the world.

The Nxivm initiation was supposed to open up a secret sisterhood. After giving up compromising photographs to the recruiter “master,” each woman was expecting a tattoo. Instead they received 2-inch brands that seemed to suggest the initials of the cults founder, Keith Raniere.

An investigation into “Little Albert,” the famous test subject.

A single pill could take the sting out of our memories of trauma.

Inside the economics of scientific publishing, an industry that’s somehow nearly as profitable as film and has changed the course of science in the process.

A history of the gravestone laser-etching industry.

A study in building spaceships.