WIRED Politics Lab

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Earth is teeming with unknown species, and they’re dying off faster than ever. Now biologists are battling over an old question: how to catalog life?

Written by Brooke Jarvis. Originally published on November 10th 2022.

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To hear stories three days earlier, listen on The Big Story: ⁠⁠⁠⁠http://swap.fm/l/wi-bigstorypod-feeddrop

Sneaking six Americans out of Iran in 1979 would take an audacious plan, false identities, and an epic Hollywood cover story.

Written by Joshuah Bearman. Originally published on April 24th, 2007.

For more of the most ambitious, future-defining stories from our favorite human writers, subscribe to The Big Story newsletter: https://www.wired.com/newsletter/the-big-story
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To escape the chaos of her Russian childhood, Lili Infante became an American law enforcement prodigy. She pioneered the DEA’s investigations of the dark web—never suspecting who she’d find hiding there.

Written by Joshuah Bearman and Owen Long. Originally published on October 21st, 2026.

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They thought their payments were untraceable. They couldn’t have been more wrong. The untold story of the case that shredded the myth of Bitcoin’s anonymity.

Written by Andy Greenberg. Originally published on April 7th, 2022.

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He shed his identity with the goal of disappearing for one month. Then the manhunt began.

Written by Evan Ratliff. Originally published on November 20th, 2009.

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