On Manson bloggers, murder fandom and being a sad, dark teen.

Amidst a historic shortage at sperm banks nationwide, a new means of donation is on the rise: Facebook groups. Elaine Byrd got involved in the community first as a moderator, then as a recipient. That’s how she met Ari Nagel, aka the Sperminator, a superdonor with nearly a hundred biological children and counting.

He became a guru in the self-optimization scene, hobnobbing with the likes of Elon Musk. But will anyone listen to his warnings about the movement that brought him renown?

Kurtis Minder finds the cat-and-mouse energy of outsmarting criminal syndicates deeply satisfying.

Inside America’s fast-growing civilian tactical training industry.

How a 16-year-old from suburban Connecticut became the most famous teen in America.

On the people who lie about serving in the military and the detectives who try to expose them.

When Jake Millison went missing, his family said he’d skipped town. But his friends refused to let him simply disappear.

What happens when SpaceX takes over your sleepy Texas town.

The rise of “natural” wines, and what happens next.

The largest crowdfunding site in the world puts up a mirror to who we are and what matters most to us. Try not to look away.

How an obsession with school shooters led to a murder plot.

Death, ISIS, and tourism in the Atlas Mountains.

In his old life, Matthew Cox told stories to scam his way into millions of dollars. Now he’s trying to make it by selling tales that are true.

Activities include: getting his own stem cells injected into his body every six months, taking 100 supplements a day, following a strict diet, bathing in infrared light, hanging out in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, and wearing yellow-lensed glasses every time he gets on an airplane.

When a day hike in Rocky Mountain National Park ended in a grisly death, Investigative Services Branch veteran Beth Shott hit the trail, where she began unraveling a harrowing case.

After an 11-year-old Navajo girl was kidnapped, her family and friends sprang into action to find her. Why did it take so long for law enforcement to join them?

For years he used fake identities to charm women out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then his victims banded together to take him down.

Inside the big and not especially scientific business of lavender and frankincense.

A new breed of real estate investor is destroying America’s cities.

How life on four wheels became a brand.

Meet the smokejumpers of America.

The radical environmental group Earth First! orchestrates a musical in Florida.

“Two weeks before Christmas, I was explaining to a friend in town that if I seemed more distressed than usual, it was just because I was trying to accustom myself to the fact that my cat didn’t want to be my cat anymore. ‘No way,’ she said. ‘Here’s what you do: You just call Dawn.’ And then she gave me the cat psychic’s phone number.”

Inside one woman’s often conflicted world.