Many narratives of disability convey uplifting messages of hardship overcome. Christina Crosby instead focusses, in brutal detail, on the pain she has suffered. By Michael M. Weinstein.

Alzheimer’s disease, Harry Houdini, and America's invisible caregivers. By Lynn Casteel Harper.

After two years of unimaginable tragedy, everyone from outfitters and Sherpas to would-be climbers and the Nepalese government is questioning the future of commercial mountaineering. And then there’s David Morton, a veteran guide who spent the past year asking: What happens when you try to leave the world’s most lucrative mountain forever? By Abe Streep.

Merle Haggard

When Decca Aitkenhead’s partner, Tony, died rescuing their son from a riptide, she believed she had survived the worst time of her life. But there was more to come.

Admit it, you’re morbidly curious. By Sarah Emerson.

Fifty years ago, when Claire Wilson was eighteen, she was critically wounded during the 1966 University of Texas Tower shooting—the first massacre of its kind. How does the path of a bullet change a life? By Pamela Colloff.

“Between 1999 and 2001, I helped eight people die, including the poet Al Purdy. Now, as I prepare to take my own life, I’m ready to tell my story.” By John Hofsess.

Two families, two bodies, and a wilderness of secrets. By Alex Tizon.

A nurse gave an infant a fatal overdose of medication. Seven months later she killed herself. Could either death have been prevented? By Sarah Kliff.

If your child gets sick, hope for something mechanical. Failing that, wish for something commonplace. This is a mother's quest to find her daughter a diagnosis. By Alison Motluk.

An attorney pieces together a life cut short. By Burke M. Butler.

“You just need an attitude adjustment.” “You are in need of the truth. If you were to only see it you could get over your loss and have new life.”  “You seem like a very angry person and if you just learned to release that anger you would see the path.”  One of the consequences of writing about loss and pain very publicly is that some people come to believe that you are, in fact, a deeply angry, troubled, fucked up person. That isn't an accurate description of me at all, ...

Donne’s Contagious London. By Alison Bumke.

Guillermo Padilla says he was part of a commando unit in 1973 that tortured and executed suspected opponents of General Augusto Pinochet. By Pascale Bonnefoy.

Simone’s courage was undeniable, but it was also a shield, even a mask, designed to protect her from hostile forces, real and imagined. White supremacy was not the only hellhound on her trail. By Adam Shatz.

The enduring mystery of Keats’s last words. By Michelle Stacey.

Schizophrenia’s effects are often discussed in metaphors. What is it like to live with those metaphors? By Esmé Weijun Wang.

Scientists Pat and Peter Shaw died recently in a suicide pact. Their daughters tell the story of their plan - and their remarkable lives. By Julia Medew.

In February 2003, an avalanche killed seven students in B.C.’s Glacier National Park. None of the survivors of that day have ever talked to the media. Until now. By Ainsley Doty.