The New York Times

The Struggles of Rejecting the Gender Binary

Not everyone identifies as male or female. This is what it’s like to be nonbinary in a world that wants to box you in.

How Beauty Is Making Scientists Rethink Evolution

The extravagant splendor of the animal kingdom can’t be explained by natural selection alone — so how did it come to be?

The Problem With Putting a Price on the End of the World

Economists have workable policy ideas for addressing climate change. But what if they’re politically impossible?

The Senseless Logic of the Wild

A weeklong trip in Alaska was supposed to be an adventure. In an instant, it became the experience that defined us all.

What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage

In this popular essay from June 2006 — one of the most emailed New York Times articles ever — a wife tries to improve her husband by using exotic-animal training techniques.

‘If Bobbie Talks, I’m Finished’: How Les Moonves Tried to Silence an Accuser

A trove of text messages details a plan by Mr. Moonves and a faded Hollywood manager to bury a sexual assault allegation. Instead, the scheme helped sink the CBS chief, and may cost him $120 million.

Losing Earth

We knew everything we needed to know, and nothing stood in our way. Nothing, that is, except ourselves. A tragedy in two acts.

The Insect Apocalypse Is Here

What does it mean for the rest of life on Earth?

Selling Airborne Opulence to the Upper Upper Upper Class

For a private-jet broker, success is all about knowing who’s who in the world’s 0.0001 percent.

The Human Brain Is a Time Traveler

Looking to the future has always defined humanity. Will A.I. become the best crystal ball of all?

Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis

The answer to the disparity in death rates has everything to do with the lived experience of being a black woman in America.

What Teenagers Are Learning From Online Porn

American adolescents watch much more pornography than their parents know — and it’s shaping their ideas about pleasure, power and intimacy. Can they be taught to see it more critically?

Beyond the Bitcoin Bubble

Yes, it’s driven by greed — but the mania for cryptocurrency could wind up building something much more important than wealth.

War Without End

The Pentagon’s failed campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan left a generation of soldiers with little to fight for but one another.

Neanderthals Were People, Too

New research shows they shared many behaviors that we long believed to be uniquely human. Why did science get them so wrong?

A Generation in Japan Faces a Lonely Death

In postwar Japan, a single-minded focus on rapid economic growth helped erode family ties. Now, a generation of elderly Japanese is dying alone.

The Muggle Problem

On the real political relevance of “Harry Potter.”

To Obama With Love, and Hate, and Desperation

Over eight years, through millions of letters, the staff of the White House mailroom read the unfiltered story of a nation.

When ‘Not Guilty’ Is a Life Sentence

What happens after a defendant is found not guilty by reason of insanity? Often the answer is involuntary confinement in a state psychiatric hospital — with no end in sight.

If Every Day Is a Rainy Day, What Am I Saving For?

I grew up without money. My financial plan includes all the lipstick I want.