A writer reckons with his debts, both financial and personal.

A mother and daughter take a complicated trip to Central Asia.

Illness and identity in a quietly fractured family.

While on a flight, a student alternates between his seatmate's conversations and his own painful memories.

The events that led the writer to spend 60 days in jail.

A divorced father takes a job disposing 44 tons of rotting bison meat in an abandoned warehouse.

"As though exposure to air were a catalyst of some sort, a wave of the stench hit him, even through the painting mask and snowmobile goggles. His eyes watered; he was momentarily unable to breathe. He may even have blacked out, which may have been why his aim was off, why his shoulder stopped rotating in the air, and how he came to be showered in a blanket of maggoty meat. And then he did pass out, just briefly."

Visiting a lost friend.

An interview with a woman who works in one of the exclusive hostess bars in Tokyo’s Ginza district, where an elite clientele pay heavily for champagne, whiskey, and conversation, and client-hostess relationships can span decades.

“There’s a lot of disorder that comes along with wanting to know everything and wanting to try everything and wanting to experience everything, but there’s a lot of knowledge that comes out of it too.”

“My mother became my daughter when I was nine years old.”

A former sex worker interviews a longtime John on how it feels to pay for it.

An excerpt from Zak Smith’s We Did Porn detailing an appearance by porn star Sasha Grey on The Tyra Banks Show.