In the film bullets approach in slow motion a series of glistening roundels, resembling condoms just taken out of their paper wrappings. Most of the bullets go right through, leaving a clean hole. But the last roundel in the film collapses slowly, wrapping itself around the bullet like a blanket on a laundry line hit by a wayward football. It is a piece of artificially bred human skin, reinforced with eight layers of transgenic spider silk, the material spiders produce to spin their webs.

Translated from the original Dutch, exclusive to Longform.org.

On the life of an American soldier AWOL in Canada.

What happened to Air France Flight 447?

The author came late to basketball. A profile of his favorite player:

He creates a sense of danger in the arena and yet has enough wit in his style to bring off funny ideas when he wants to.

A profile of Eric Holder.

What went wrong with nuclear power?

Dr. Tom Coburn is a United States Senator. He doesn’t want your vote.

For the first time since exposing the atrocities at Abu Ghraib, Joe Darby speaks out.

How Sinclair Broadcast Group bent the rules, bought politicians, and faked the news to become one of the largest independent owners of television stations in America.

Colin Powell’s battle with the Bush administration.

A profile of then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.

Prison medicine and the coming plague.

A profile of Benicio Del Toro.

Life as Beck.

What a soldier finds in combat.

A reversal of power in an age-old partnership.

He doesn’t really know. Never really has, actually, and that’s the way he likes it.

“The U.S. patent code was never meant to cover your genes, your cells, your blood, or the marrow in your bones. But it does. And the worst thing is, it’s too late for you to do anything about it. You’ve already been sold.”

The tormenting of Wen Ho Lee.

“Ligurta Station, Arizona. The hottest town in America. It’s 120 in the shade. Can you dig it? Ron can. He’s been out here for the past five years, carving out his own little slice of heaven.”

“Charlize Theron is anxious. Not greatly anxious, not distraught, but still. Anxious.”

Centralia, Pennsylvania, used to be a place with kids and schools and churches and houses. Then the ground caught on fire.

How the illegitimate son of Liberian ex-President (and accused cannibal) Charles Taylor went from being a small time Florida hoodlum to one of Africa’s most notorious killers.