Longform Best of 2021

On the interior and exterior lives of a basketball superstar.

Mo Pinel spent a career reshaping the ball’s inner core to harness the power of physics. He revolutionized the sport—and spared no critics along the way.

Three years ago, college football was rocked by a domestic violence scandal that ended with Ohio State firing assistant coach Zach Smith and suspending head coach Urban Meyer. Both men have since reinvented their images and careers. But what about Courtney Smith, the woman who said she had been abused for years by Smith while he coached at Ohio State? This is her story.

On the Long Island Inferno, two fathers, both with complicated pasts took it all too far. Neither man was ever the same.

Sunken by grief, Alenka Artnik found herself alone on a bridge, contemplating suicide. Ten years later, she is the world’s greatest female freediver and getting stronger with each record-breaking plunge.