On the parallel sadness of Thom Gunn and Elizabeth Bishop.

The case of the murdered real-estate legend and her enraged assistant.

A Marine veteran of the Iraq War on battle and faith.

The story of the most secret underground society in Paris.

“What I do is not magical realism. I do realistic magic. Look, whenever someone does something new, people have to compare it with things they already know. So even if you innovate, you end up being connected to the past. When I began making movies people linked me to Fellini or Buñuel. Now new filmmakers are called ‘jodorowskian.’”

An investigation into the mass graves in Texas that contain the remains of migrants.

On Graham Greene, the master of “ethical ambivalence.”

Clarence Thomas, then-chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, profiled by Juan Williams:

He agrees with Reagan's characterization of the civil-rights leaders as old men fomenting discontent to justify their own "rather good positions." "The issue is economics—not who likes you." Thomas has told me. "And when you have the economics, people do have a way of changing their attitudes toward you. I don't see how the civil-rights people today can claim Malcolm X as one of their own. Where does he say black people should go begging the Labor Department for jobs? He was hell on integrationists. Where does he say you should sacrifice your institutions to be next to white people?"

The odyssey of Kim Jong-il’s personal chef.

High school debate and the demise of public speech.

The life and last days of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

A few days in the life of Miley Cyrus.

An essay on gynobibliophobia and the critical reception of women writers.

The origins of Lagunitas are laced with THC.

Rise of the wonk.

Profiles of Vietnam veterans several years after returning home.

On the “unfair significance” of Jeremy Lin.

A personal history of “America’s most misunderstood religion.”

On dirty laundry and the meaning of freedom.

A profile of the designer, who died on February 19, 2019.

The story of Theranos.

Gamers, celebrities, military veterans, and publicists populate a capitalist future.

“I believe that all the survivors are mad. One time or another their madness will explode. You cannot absorb that much madness and not be influenced by it.”

An attempt to figure out why, and how, a young pilot named Andreas Günter Lubitz deliberately plunged an airliner into the remote French Alps, killing himself and the other 149 people on board.

Their boss allegedly committed sexual assault and abuse. He denied everything. They had to decide: Who do I believe? What do I do?