Graydon Carter’s Vanity Fair reigned over magazines—until the golden age of print ended.

Alan Watts, for all his faults, was a wildly imaginative and provocative thinker who reimagined religion in a secular age

A profile of Spears at her nadir.

How a Hollywood icon found himself at a dead end.

A profile of the 17-year-old star.

On the joy of watching Roger play live at Wimbledon.

Since Karl Lagerfeld took over Chanel, it has become one of the most profitable luxury brands in the world.

Two stories you need to know about Eliud Kipchoge, each painting a picture of a man who is, well, different.

I thought he was sincerely misunderstanding the science, but he knows exactly what he is doing.

Inside the mind of Silicon Valley’s most vainglorious villain.

Sean Patrick Cooper's adventures among the memoir-happy one-percent

A profile of the designer

America is today in the midst of a great technological revolution. With the advent of the silicon chip, information processing, communications, and the national economy have been strikingly altered. The new technology is changing how we live, how we work, how we think. The revolution didn't just happen; it was engineered by a small number of people, principally Middle Americans, whose horizons were as unlimited as the Iowa sky. collectively, they engineered Tomorrow. Foremost among them is Robert Noyce.

He shed his identity with the goal of disappearing for one month. Then the manhunt began.

At age 17, Eustace Conway moved into the North Carolina woods. He hasn’t compromised since.

With only a single breath, Alexey Molchanov, history’s most daring freediver, is reaching improbable depths—and discovering a new kind of enlightenment as he conquers one of the world’s wildest sports.

Nima Arkani-Hamed is championing a campaign to build the world’s largest particle collider, even as he pursues a new vision of the laws of nature.

In his rapid ascent to the top of his field, James Maynard has cut a path through simple-sounding questions about prime numbers that have stumped mathematicians for centuries.

The mathematician John Horton Conway’s myriad accomplishments — including the Game of Life, sprouts and the surreal numbers — are the product of a mind at play.

Born poor in colonial India and dead at 32, Ramanujan had fantastical, out-of-nowhere visions that continue to shape the field today.

Rare-wine collectors are savvy, competitive guys with a taste for impossible finds. The biggest hoax in history took place right under their noses.

A profile of the film critic.

A young dealer goes on the lam after selling multiple masterpieces to several buyers simultaneously.

The strange life of a 16-year-old model.

Frankie Manning was the greatest swing dancer alive. Then the world forgot about him.

The rise and ruin of Couchsurfing.com