A letter to his unborn son about the wonders of being an only child.

His book panned in the New York Times after being misread by the critic, an author responds.

A tech reporter tells the story of his ruined digital life.

“Here is what I would like for you to know: In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body—it is heritage.”

A mission in Baghdad to let a photojournalist get a shot of an insurgent corpse ends up getting a Marine killed.

On China’s modern-day Communist Party and why foundational myths can never be shed.

“Private prisons are shrouded in secrecy. I took a job as a guard to get inside—then things got crazy.”

“How do you catch someone up on your entire life?”

How a cat litter scientist from Iowa ended up in an NBA star’s inner circle.

What one writer learned about power, real and imagined, from Trump’s “senior adviser” and son-in-law.

More than 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education, New York’s schools remain separate and unequal.

“Transforming into an Administrative Jekyll for a certain amount of time every day limits the amount of time my Creative Hyde can come up with content to market and sell. Luckily, amphetamines have that problem tackled as well: when you’re using them, you don’t have to sleep… at all.”

“The first time I was ever published in a book was 1997. It was because I found Roger Ebert’s email and asked him a question.”

An essay on how to turn a sizable book advance into a sizable debt.

The story of Southern Flight 242.

The highest-ranking CIA officer to be convicted of spying passes the tricks of the trade along to his son.

On caring for a bipolar parent amidst a broken mental health care system.

Academics are convinced it’s an intelligent satire.

The author discovers devastating secrets while going through her late father’s belongings.

A jogging buddy collapses during a marathon, his heart suddenly finished beating. The writer goes looking for answers.

On chemo.

When Michael Deng joined an Asian-American frat, he was searching for belonging and identity. Two months later he was dead.

A journey to Disney World with kids and weed.

A daughter investigates her father’s belief that the government is subjecting him and thousands more to to mind control.