Dark Waters
Some of the world’s largest, oldest fish live in Oregon. Why anyone would want to vandalize them, even abduct them, takes explaining.
Dispatches
A collection of 25 issues
How to Drink in Qatar
The World Cup and its drunken fans are about to crash head-first into a repressive, restrictive society, where alcohol is illegal mostly everywhere.
Reconsider the Oyster
Tracking a single oyster from the Gulf to Bourbon Street, to a 1,300-ton pile of shells, provides a tour through Louisiana’s precarious coastal economy.
Paris, Exposed
The layout of the French capital is famous for its density and opaqueness. Under attack, suddenly transparency is the norm.
What #Pobrezafilia Means for Mexico
Photos of poor, brown-skinned women, naked, in sexually suggestive poses, are flooding social-media networks.
How the Other Half Shares
When the media talks about social media, it’s always about young, white Americans. We spoke to a wider sample—including a sex worker, a pastor’s wife, a rapper—to see why people do what they do online.
In the Wilderness
A young girl in South Dakota—the last school-age child remaining in her community—epitomizes the challenges of rural American Judaism.
The Accidental Actor
Stumbling onto a movie set in Los Angeles—and then staying there for as long as humanly possible—offers lessons in acting and reality.
Home Sweet Sweden
In a life of perpetual movement, the moment arrives when you find yourself desperate for stillness.
My Time of Not Dying
Call it Kreider’s Law: You can’t be grateful to be alive your entire life. Especially when there's an arms race going on inside your head.
Groundhog Days
In Woodstock, Ill., where “Groundhog Day” was filmed, hundreds of fans gather every year, year after year, to celebrate their favorite movie.
The Kings of Simcoe County
At an Elvis festival in rural Canada, scores of tribute artists (not "impersonators") pay homage to the King. When searching for the meaning of it all, try not to overthink it.
Of Fish and Farmers
Consider the Delta smelt: an old fish in California, endemic to the upper Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary, now caught between its home and thousands of drought-stricken acres.
Blues on Wheels
A writer becomes a carrier for the United States Postal Service out of a long-held love for the mail. What she discovers are screams, threats, lies, labor violations, and dog attacks.
The Iron in Man
How a book, booze, and a guilty hangover brought an admittedly non-athletic man to the starting line, and what happened next.
Summer Into Fall
New clothes, AP classes, middle-aged angst. A New York City mom reflects on being pulverized by the first day of school.
Water From Elephants
Humans have kept elephants for thousands of years, longer than we've domesticated chickens. Yet the great animals’ capacity to cry for freedom comes as a shock.
How to Unmarry Your Wife
After moving from a state that recognizes same-sex marriage to one that doesn’t, a couple’s marriage becomes a partnership, and they are suddenly forced into new roles.
Glad I’m Not You
The instinct to applaud boot-strapping and the comeback kid is as American as apple pie. So why does schadenfreude make us feel so good?
Read It Again, Dad
Good books are frequently credited with being worth reading twice. But when was the last time anyone had time for that?
The Champagne of Maine
The top-selling spirit in Maine is a coffee-flavored brandy, something that could be straight out of old medicine texts. A hunt for the origins of a staple, in the northern woods and waterfronts.
Kitty Pride
A visit with the prima donnas of the 32nd Annual Westchester County Cat Show helps a longtime owner appreciate her unruly childhood best friend, now departed.
The Demands of Cold Blood
When a crime reporter is told an outlandish account, his first obligation is to establish the facts. But when the story turns out to be a conspiracy, it can knock his sense of duty until it cracks.
A Stroll Down First Avenue
Matthew Baldwin and photographer Caitlin Burke take a jaunt along downtown Seattle’s main artery.
A Run Around Lake Union
The best jogging routes are those that give you something to run from. And turf-fighting waterfowl, mysterious tech-gang tags, and head-scratching public art should do the trick. Matthew Baldwin takes us along his daily jog around Seattle’s Lake Union. Photographs by Kate Bicket.