The mentalist’s manipulation techniques give people too sophisticated to believe in the paranormal something quasi-scientific to hang on to.

Twenty years ago my hometown made national headlines when the local college staged an internationally acclaimed play about gay men and the AIDS crisis. The people I grew up with are still feeling the aftershocks.

Thomas Joshua Cooper risks his life to document the world’s remotest places.

A circle of young black playwrights is doing some of the most vital work in American theater. And Perry is at its center.

From the proto-bleep to meta-bleep: how the US government protects us from the profane.

He helped build an artists’ utopia. Now he faces trial for 36 deaths there.

How legends of the American music industry made millions off the work of Solomon Linda, a Zulu tribesman who wrote “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and died a pauper.

Will Sterling Ruby’s new clothing line devalue his other work?

A Dutch gallerist made thousands of forgeries and passed them off as the work of real artists. When he was caught, a new con began.

Seeing Hamilton with Barack Obama.

A mid-boom critique of New York City’s high-priced, mostly glass condo buildings.

A profile of the author on the eve on his debut novel, The Water Dancer.

The author recalls his time as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

How Kaws short-circuited the art world.

An interview with the writer and Nobel laureate.

The author at 84.

Twenty years after the world first heard about Christopher McCandless, fans of Into the Wild continue to risk their lives to reach the bus where he died.

How the English graphic designer set the course for contemporary visual culture.

How the CIA used a fake science fiction film to sneak six Americans out of revolutionary Iran. The declassified story that became Ben Affleck’s Argo.

A leading sci-fi writer takes stock of China’s global rise.

Now Peter Max’s associates are trading lurid allegations of kidnapping, hired goons, attempted murder by Brazil nut and art fraud on the high seas.

Bennington College in the 1980s was a hothouse of sex, drugs, and future literary stars—among them, Donna Tartt, Bret Easton Ellis, and Jonathan Lethem. Return to a campus and an era like no other.

A profile of Joss Sackler.

Camille Billops abandoned her four-year-old to become the artist she knew she was meant to be. Twenty years later, her daughter wanted to know: why did you leave me?

A profile of Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings.