The improbable and true story of how Al Sharpton, Cornel West, Marion Barry’s wife, and Tucker Carlson (yes, that Tucker Carlson) flew to Liberia to negotiate a ceasefire in the midst of a civil war.

A 1988 profile of Bill Murray, then at the peak of his box office power and living in a secluded farmhouse in the Hudson River Valley.

A profile of the Los Angeles Clippers owner, an oft-sued real estate baron with a documented racist streak and a penchant for heckling his own players, on the occasion of him winning an NAACP lifetime achievement award.

As medical researchers scramble to find the source of a fatal lung disease and officials seek to ban the sale of vape pens, our correspondent set out to separate reality from hysteria.

Authorities say Ramon Abbas, aka Hushpuppi, perfected a simple internet scam and laundered millions of dollars. His past says a lot about digital swagger, and the kinds of stories that get told online.

The psychologist taught us that what we remember is not fixed, but her work testifying for defendants like Harvey Weinstein collides with our traumatized moment.

As divided families argued over whether to stay or go, Jones saw part of his congregation slipping away. Al Simon, father of three, wanted to take his children back to America. "No! No! No!" screamed his wife. Someone whispered to her: "Don't worry, we're going to take care of everything." Indeed, as reporters learned later from survivors, Jones had a plan to plant one or more fake defectors among the departing group, in order to attack them. He told some of his people that the Congressman's plane "will fall out of the sky."

The author boards the Costa Atlantica for several days of line dancing, burlesque and buffets as part of the cruise industry’s new foray into China.

Jamie Leigh Jones’s story of gang-rape in Iraq changed the law to help victims, even though she might not have been one herself.

A jailhouse interview with Vladimir Putin’s rival at the very end of his decade behind bars.

We devote vast resources to intensive, one-off procedures, while starving the kind of steady, intimate care that often helps people more.

“No one works better out of anguish at all; that’s an incredible literary conceit.”

On the death of NBA star Reggie Lewis.

But not for want of programmers trying.

A profile of author William T. Vollmann.

The story of heiress Huguette Clark, who spent her life avoiding people and collecting dolls.

During her brief tenure as governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin was a genuinely effective, bipartisan legislator. What went wrong?

The story of a Marine who saved innumerable lives, then got fired.

Researchers do look into near-death experiences, seeking a verified case of what they call “apparently non-physical veridical perception.”

Revisiting the 6200 block of Osage Avenue.

On the death of a high school basketball star in New York City.

The story of a bizarre—and bizarrely effective—smear campaign.

The reclusive director comes out of his shell at 73.

One of the most accomplished Himalayan guides works at an outdoor retailer in Lower Manhattan.