Every year eleven million people attend Magh Mela, a Hindu festival on the banks of the Ganges. The temporary infrastructure to support them includes hospitals and power stations, plus a massive surveillance apparatus.

Ten years ago, the tax agency formed a special team to unravel the complex tax-lowering strategies of the nation’s wealthiest people. It never had a chance.

In 1990, there was no star bigger than the man born Robert Van Winkle. But just as quickly as he became the bestselling rapper the world had ever seen, he became a pariah.

Throughout 2020, the notion that the novel coronavirus leaked from a lab was off-limits. Those who dared to push for transparency say toxic politics and hidden agendas kept us in the dark.

Bill Landreth was one of the whiz kids, poking around Pentagon servers with the friends he had never met. But one of them was an FBI informant.

Four Galician sisters take on the macho percebeira culture to harvest one of the world’s most expensive delicacies, the gooseneck barnacle, from the frigid sea.

Adapted from Grape, Olive, Pig: Deep Travels Through Spain’s Food Culture.

An addict navigates 1980s Detroit.

A conversation with the author of Calvin and Hobbes.

How the Third Reich was founded on a conspiracy theory.

On the intrigue surrounding Dr. Zhivago’s publication.

Diagnosed with a rare blood disease, the author reflects on illness and addiction.

A week in the author’s life when it became impossible to control the course of events.

A visit to the hotel North Korea starved to build, still unfinished after breaking ground in 1987.

An investigation into the death of a sacred white buffalo and the man who raised it.

A bookkeeper’s $9 million swindle, her lavish second life, and the boss who didn’t notice.

A visit to a Maine museum devoted to Bigfoot and other mythical creatures.

Twenty-six years after he was wrongfully imprisoned for the murder of his wife, Michael Morton sees the real killer brought to justice in a Texas courthouse.

On Japan’s Hokkaido, an island the size of Ireland, and its rebel leader of lore, Shakushain.

The bumpy ride from St. Petersburg and Moscow, through a Russia slipping back into the 19th century.

On the factories of India and the women whose lives they ruin.

The search for a disgraced ex-LAPD officer bent on killing his former colleagues and their families.

The congressman (and future Mayor of New York) vs. the South American assassin.

In Hollywood’s new blockbuster economy, the actors who portray superheroes are as interchangeable as the costumes they wear.