On Taylor Swift’s passive-aggressive lyrics, the life of the writer, and the pain of middle school.

With The Apprentice, Trump rose to a level of popularity with minorities that the GOP could only dream of. Then he torched it all to prepare for a hard-right run at the presidency.

Richard Carr, a retired psychologist who had long dreamed of sailing around the world, was in the middle of the Pacific when he started sending frantic messages that said pirates were boarding his boat. Two thousand miles away in Los Angeles, his family woke up to a nightmare: he might be dying alone, and there was almost nothing they could do about it.

Following the hunters and poachers, servers and saviors of the little-known pangolin—a scaly, endangered creature sold by the thousands on the black market.

Three years ago, Shell spent millions to send a colossal oil rig to drill in the remote seas of the Arctic. But the Arctic had other plans.

How digital detectives unraveled the mystery of Olympic Destroyer—and why the next big attack will be even harder to crack.

“And while maybe you don’t care if Justin Bieber ever does make his way back to a kind of normalcy, perhaps you can admit there is at least something admirable, in the abstract, about someone finding a way to survive, and even to become kind, when all they’ve been taught since a young age, by millions of adoring people, is that there is no need for them to be kind at all. And if that doesn’t move you, then maybe you can at least find sociological interest in the process that Bieber is about to recount here, which is how you turn into someone you don’t want to be, and what you do about it once you decide you want to be someone else. Someone better, even.”

The Branch Davidians today, 20 years after the deadly standoff.

A Southland Tales fanboy goes down the rabbit hole with the movie’s director.

Meeting Christopher Thomas Knight, a.k.a. the North Pond Hermit, who lived alone in the Maine woods for nearly 30 years.

On the conspiracy-theorist occupiers at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and how they’re fighting against their own best interests.

Five years after his death, friends, family, and the athletes he covered reflect on the legendary ‘SportsCenter’ anchor and ESPN icon.

Peter Zumthor, who recently won the Pritzker Prize after a career of few buildings and mostly modest-in-size projects, on the “architecture of actually making things”

A profile of Martha Nussbaum, whose ideas illuminate the often ignored elements of human life—aging, inequality, and emotion.

A profile of a previously unknown rookie pitcher for the Mets who dropped out of Harvard, made a spiritual quest to Tibet, and somewhere along the line figured out how to throw a baseball much, much faster than anyone else on Earth.

A visit to Glenn Greenwald’s house in Rio.

Why one man made it his mission to kill 60 known sex offenders.

A murder involving the late actor leaves unanswered questions.

An investigation into America’s Greek system.

The U.N.’s role in creating an epidemic in Haiti.

On the casting process for New York’s cult leader-like spin instructors.

Embedded with the “hotshots” trying to battle forest fires.

Life on a weed farm in Humboldt County.

The surprising bond between damaged birds and traumatized veterans.