Two decades after NYC sought to relocate its infamous tunnel-dwelling denizens, a years-long investigation reveals a few hardy souls still toiling and thriving beneath the city streets. They insist they wouldn’t live anywhere else. By Anthony Taille.

Ten years ago, an acquaintance committed one of the most nefarious crimes in New York history. Then he helped me try to understand why. By Aaron Gell.

Don Quixote at four hundred. By Gary Saul Morson.

Mayfair, home of the 1 percent’s 1 percent, has seen a flare up of drama of all sorts in recent months. The Taubman family feud, which should come to a resolution at a multi-million-dollar Sotheby’s auction this week, is but one. By James Reginato.

At 82-years-old, Willie Nelson admits he doesn't have many good fights left in him. In fact, he says he only has one: to stop Corporate America from co-opting the legal marijuana trade. And while the fight may only just be beginning, he's in it for the long-haul.

Cultural Commodification and Tibetan Singing Bowls. By Ben Joffe.

John Weaver and the business of political seduction. By Jason Zengerle.

Last year, Sudan's government bombed Dr. Tom’s hospital. He’s not leaving. By James Verini.

The men pack the witch’s mouth with rags. The time for confessions has come and gone. Neighbors crowd into a circle around her, here on this hill of rubbish next to their settlement, Warakum. They watch as the men blindfold her before tying her arms, legs and stomach to a log. They watch as wood is stacked and gasoline poured. They watch as their witch is pushed facedown onto the pyre. Camera phones are held up and aimed. The match is struck and thrown.

One refugee’s epic escape from Syria. By Nicholas Schmidle.

When a brain tumor he was born with suddenly began to grow, he was lost in amnesia, dementia and depression. A miracle surgeon gave him a second chance at life. By Demetri Kofinas.

A pair of neuroscience majors helped their fellow students experiment with MDMA and other drugs — but at what price? By Emily Greenhouse.

On January 27, 2013, 21-year-old Elisa Lam stepped off a train from San Diego in downtown Los Angeles, gathered her belongings, and walked to a hostel on Main Street. It was, like most every mid-winter day in LA, sunny and in the mid-60s, the kind of weather that makes people never want to leave. Under such conditions — when a warm, low-angle winter sun softens the entire landscape — it’s possible to not fully absorb the reality that this 54-block section of LA...

After 15 years of research, the director of Withnail and I believes he has cracked the most enduring mystery in British criminal history. By Mick Brown.

Why did a respected psychiatrist and beloved grandfather become a major drug dealer? By Erika Hayasaki.

David Lee Windecher didn’t try to hide his past when he applied for an internship with the DeKalb County district attorney’s office. He knew the prosecutors would vet him and likely discover that the eager young law student standing before them had a criminal record. So when he was asked whether he had ever been in trouble, he replied honestly. I have been in so much trouble, you wouldn’t believe it if I told you. It would literally take the entire afternoon.

On learning from the brute force of nature. By Amanda Fortini.

The prestigious school’s sexual-harassment policies proved to be no match for a love triangle involving the dean and two married professors. By David Margolick.

Each year around 50,000 people die in New York, some alone and unseen. Yet death even in such forlorn form can cause a surprising amount of activity. Sometimes, along the way, a life’s secrets are revealed. By N. R. Kleinfield.

An intimate portrait of the former ‘Saturday Night Live’ star’s career and life, one year after she was laid to rest. By Mike Thomas.