Since she first started working in the hospitality industry two decades ago, Vida Afram has cleaned nearly 60,000 hotel rooms.

All over the West, a housing crisis is causing workforce shortages, crippling local businesses, and threatening the culture and existence of mountain towns as we know them. But amid the doom and gloom, some people are fighting for solutions.

How the real estate boom left Black neighborhoods behind.

An examination of Brazil’s immense tannery industry shows how hides from illegally deforested ranches can easily reach the global marketplace. In the United States, much of the demand for Brazilian leather comes from automakers.

In Austin and cities around the country, prices are skyrocketing, forcing regular people to act like speculators. When will it end?

He brought Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Cabbage Patch Kids to our living rooms. He made and lost fortunes. Can Al Kahn stay in the game?

The health-care brand Hims wants to leverage young men’s anxiety over erections and hair loss into a multibillion-dollar empire.

When presenting as a man, this “tech bro” entrepreneur was the toast of Silicon Valley—until she stepped into boardrooms as a woman.

Inside Alden Global Capital.

Buca was a big-ticket darling of the Toronto restaurant scene. How did it wind up $35 million in debt?

Próspera was supposed to be a privatized, Silicon Valley-funded paradise—but it’s a hard sell for the neighbors.

Faced with fragility and uncertainty, gig workers around the world are connecting across borders to challenge platforms’ power and policies.

The story of Theranos.

The rise and ruin of Couchsurfing.com.

Amid the complex web of international trade, proving the authenticity of a product can be near-impossible. But one company is taking the search to the atomic level.

Peter Thiel gamed Silicon Valley, the IRS, and Donald Trump.

The once-utopian accommodations site, now headed by an alum of surveillance-analytics firm Palantir, has gone back on its always-free ethos.

Exploited by apps. Attacked by thieves. Unprotected by cops. 65,000 strong, with only themselves to count on.

The boutique that defined early-aughts L.A. style has taken an unexpected turn.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of workers churn through a vast mechanism that hires and monitors, disciplines and fires. Amid the pandemic, the already strained system lurched.

Rebecca Raffle came to Indianapolis from Los Angeles with dreams of building a cannabis empire. She introduced herself as a West Coast #girlboss, SEO ninja, LGBTQ Family, and avid baker. But she was altogether something different.

For five decades, as the children at Camp Shane shed pounds, made friends, and found romance, a fierce succession drama was playing out.

Foreign students are lied to and exploited on every front. They’re also propping up higher education as we know it

Buyers from all over America—some of whom had never heard of the Illinois town—came searching for wealth amid the Rust Belt ruins.

“The cowboy hats, target practice, and barbecue brisket were just a bonus. They were really there for the deregulated electrical grid.”