In a Plano bowling alley one night, Bill Fong came so close to perfection that it nearly killed him.

The strange case of Kip Litton, road race fraud.

The story of a high school star who died minutes after hitting a game-winner to end an undefeated season, and the family and friends he left behind.

A youth wasted on pro-level Ultimate Frisbee.

In Argentina, where the fútbol underworld controls everything from t-shirt vending to murder, and “rowdy gangs” have turned the stadium into a battleground.

How a Mexican drug cartel makes its billions.

How the U.S. lost out on iPhone work.

How a loathsome band makes gobs of money.

Reporting undercover from inside the online-shipping industry.

Frank Firetti, a 54-year-old pool salesman in Virginia, and his fading American dream.

The emerging political consciousness of Silicon Valley.

On recreational genetics and the vulnerability of family secrets.

Inside the real program to sabotage Iran’s nuclear facilities.

How the city will drown.

Boomtown San Francisco, as seen from the “Google Bus.”

Traveling with a sex tourist to the Uzbek city of Tashkent.

Cycles of boom and bust in the drilling town of Williston, N.D., as seen from the perspective of an itinerant dancer filling one of three slots at the only strip club in town, Whispers.

Entering her thirties single and adrift, the writer heads to San Francisco to spend time with Kink.com’s Princess Donna Dolore and attend a gangbang “where all the men were dressed as panda bears.”

Investigating San Francisco’s OneTaste, which promises personal and professional success through the practice of orgasmic meditation.

A visit to Tokyo’s first co-sleeping cafe, where one can pay a set fee to sleep next to a woman in 20 minute increments, though spooning, being patted on the head, and a change of pajamas are extra.

The use and abuse of civil forfeiture.

The shadowy cartel of doctors that controls U.S. healthcare.

The Vice President, his future, and the jokes.

How Hasidic Jews took over Ramapo, New York.

In Texas, politicians and CEOs are one and the same.

How Tim Armstrong bet AOL’s future on his own unprofitable baby, Patch.

How a pair of pharmaceutical companies set their prices.

The capitalist evangelism of Lean In.

A profile of Gina Rinehart, the richest person in Australia.

Ego, hubris, and the failure to adapt.

Undercover in an industrial slaughterhouse.

How adoptive parents give their problem children away.

Biogenesis and the final fall of Alex Rodriguez.

The plight of temporary workers in America.

Where donation dollars actually go.

Tales of mayhem on the set of The Canyons.

The secretive British men obsessed with the eggs of rare birds.

A haute couture confession.

Hippie surfers, a Spanish teacher and their weed empire.

A world-renowned physicist’s miscalculation.

The false promise and double standard of integration in the Obama era.

The insanity of U.S. gun law.

Lessons learned about Washington from investigating how the “grand bargain” fell apart.

Hanging out with Barack Obama.

How a high-speed rail disaster exposed China’s corruption.