Best of Longform.org 2015

Kathryn Schulz writes about the Pacific Northwest’s Cascadia fault line, and the region’s inadequate disaster-preparedness plans.

For months, Alex had been growing closer to a new group of friends online — the kindest she had ever had — who were teaching her what it meant to be a Muslim.

In 2011 Callie Quinn moved from Austin to Chile to experience a new way of life. Then she met a charming fellow foreigner—and almost lost everything.

After a hospital error, two pairs of Colombian identical twins were raised as two pairs of fraternal twins. This is the story of how they found one another — and of what happened next.

A broke agent hustles on the extreme fringe of pro basketball.

When he was 2, Strider was severely beaten by his mother’s boyfriend. Today, at 6, Strider lives with his grandparents in rural Maine, in and out of poverty, trying to make it.

Thirty-three years ago, a Chicago man was sentenced to death for murder. In 1999, another man confessed to the crime. Today, they are both free.

Adrian Chen on Megan Phelps-Roper, who was a prized daughter of the Westboro Baptist Church until interactions on social media led her to question her faith.

In 1948, a man was found on a beach in South Australia. The mysterious circumstances of his death have captivated generations of true-crime fanatics. Today, one amateur sleuth has come close to solving the case — and upended his life in the process.