A dispatch from Lima, Ohio.

Inside the stronghold of Commander Pigeon, “collector of lost and exiled men.”

The bungled theft of a $6 million violin.

Jamie Smith said he was a co-founder of Blackwater and a former CIA officer. He appeared on cable news as a counterterrorism expert and he received millions in goverment contracts to train personnel. The money was real. The resume wasn’t.

How a small group of gamers has been able to “set the terms of debate in a $100 billion industry, even as they send women like Brianna Wu into hiding and show every sign that they intend to keep doing so until all their demands are met.”

Growing up among the tall waves and schoolyard bullies of Hawaii.

On surfer girls in Maui: the story that led to the film Blue Crush.

A profile of Ken Bradshaw, who at 45 surfed the tallest wave in recorded history.

A visit to the massive Northern California surf break.

The underground culture of big waves and wild times in 1961 Malibu, and the gang of teenage boys who worshiped at the feet of the beach’s dark prince, surfing legend and grifter Miki Dora.

Getting away from it all in Mexico.

On surf legend Eddie Aikau and the complicated history of Hawaii.

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

On surfing, and surfing in San Francisco, and surfing with a San Francisco surfing fanatic.

An obsessive marine biologist gambles his savings, family, and sanity on a quest to be the first to capture a live giant squid.

A trip to a lobster festival leads to an examination of the culinary and ethical dimensions of cooking a live, possibly sentient, creature.

Stalking the disappearing bluefin tuna, the world’s most valuable wild animal.

A trip to Scotland and an investigation of enduring belief.

On the mysterious and moderately intelligent giant Pacific octopus.

A profile of a celebrity whale.

In 1992, a Chinese freighter tipped violently in a storm dumping a load of plastic floating infant toys—7,200 red beavers, 7,200 green frogs, 7,200 blue turtles, and 7,200 yellow ducks—to the open sea. This is their story.

In February 2010, a killer whale named Tilikum dragged his SeaWorld trainer into the pool and drowned her. It was the third time the orca had been involved in a death during his 27 years in captivity. This is his story.

The story of the loneliest whale in the world.

How the CIA used a fake science fiction film to sneak six Americans out of revolutionary Iran. The declassified story that became Ben Affleck’s Argo.

Throughout the ’50s and ’60s, media outlets including the New York Times and CBS News provided the CIA with information and cover for agents. Then everyone decided to pretend it had never happened.

Erik Prince, the boyish CEO of America’s largest and most controversial mercenary force, Blackwater, also happened to be a CIA agent.

The story of William Morgan: American, wanderer, Cuban revolutionary, possible spy.

When a CIA operation in Pakistan went bad, leaving three men dead, the episode offered a rare glimpse inside a shadowy world of espionage. It also jeopardized America’s most critical outpost in the war against terrorism.

On the CIA’s early operations.

A spy takes on his own agency.

A three-part series on the U.S. intelligence system post-9/11.

Writing in his mid-30s—and, it’s worth noting, in 1969—the scientist breaks down the many pleasures he’s found in getting high.

A journey inside California’s medical marijuana industry, with a guide named Captain Blue.

A trip to the Cannabis Cup serves as a backdrop for an explanation of how the War on Drugs revolutionized the way marijuana is grown in America.

The story of how a 19-year-old kid in Idaho went from delivering pizza to leading a operation responsible for smuggling at least seven tons of marijuana across the Canadian border.

On marijuana’s impact on national politics, the economy, and the prison system.

Looking for a glimpse of America’s possibly legalized future, a reporter spends a week working at an Amsterdam coffee shop (and confronts his fear of weed, kind of).

A journey to Disney World with kids and weed.

How a group of hippie surfers and a former Spanish teacher built the largest weed-smuggling empire on the West Coast.

The Facebook COO on her generation’s failures and the continuing gender gap in American business and politics.

The author comments on the medium of the graduation cliché while still advancing it.

The doctor and New Yorker writer on embracing the shortcomings of expertise.

Speaking to a group that started their college lives in 2000, the host of The Daily Show embraces how difficult the real world is.

Former Washington Post opinion page editor Greenfield on not being overwhelmed by the past in the search for a “better truth.”