An immigrant from Lebanon, a hair-cutting fortune, and the dream of building a castle on an island in British Columbia.

Eighty percent of North American teenagers are in the care of an orthodontist. On our obsession with perfect teeth.

The author was living in a friend’s basement after a bad breakup, unable to eat. Then he had lunch with Jacques Pépin.

What the internet looks like to someone who spent the past six years in an Iranian prison.

When all else failed, he commandeered a bus, and saved his neighbors. Now he’s in prison.

The poet died when he was hit by a car in 1965. Everything else about his demise is a mystery.

The life of Phyllis Frye, a pioneer in the fight for transgender rights.

Incremental changes in abortion laws lead to a system where women “turn themselves into pretzels” just to find a doctor.

The story of a sudden death amid a high school recruiting scandal in Texas.

A former prostitute turned arctivist and her taxi-driver husband go undercover in Iraq’s brothels.

The history of canis lupus in America, up to the present day.

In a remote corner of Romania, neighbors kill each other over tiny strips of land.

Phil Kennedy set out to build the ultimate brain-computer interface. In the process, he almost lost his mind.

The hedge fund manager making a bet that Wall Street can solve the water crisis in the West.

More than 500 Germans, including a former rapper named Deso Dogg, have joined ISIS in Syria.

The eccentric inhabitants of the world’s largest rock—Giant Rock, a humongous boulder deep in the Mojave Desert.

How a 63-year-old country singer went from a Nashville homeless shelter to #1 on the Swedish charts in under a year.

The best-selling young novelist lay dead in a trash-strewn cottage on Ireland’s rugged coast for over a week before she was discovered.

The pandemic of violence against women, the threats online, and the harassment on the streets are ongoing. But women’s voices assumed an unprecedented power in 2014.

As a child, Hugo Lucitante was brought to America from a tiny jungle village in Ecuador. His heart’s still back home.

It’s not just the virus that stands in the way, it’s bureaucratic logistics, and the frightening look of those hazmat suits.

A 58-year-old manuscript will become Harper Lee’s second novel, but questions about Lee’s care continue to swirl in Alabama.

A Kiwi entrepreneur is leading a revolution in recreational drugs: he’s trying to make them safe.

Squeamish though they might be about God, even the totally irreligious can find some comfort in praying.

Typee, the most popular book Melville published in his lifetime, was his memoir of Polynesia. Most of it was probably made up.