Longform

Chris Carlson left Indianapolis with his three grandsons for a male-bonding adventure in the Grand Canyon. Then he went to prison.

Anderson says she wants to focus on the future, one that now looks glamorous. But her liabilities, brought on by years of financial missteps, keep her tethered to the past—and to Central Indiana.

Jimmy’s parents sent him to live at Muscatatuck in 1952. It was a state-run institution for people with developmental disabilities, a place where parents sent children with nowhere else to go.

With a catchy slogan and a strong work ethic, Rich Burd built one of the city’s largest car dealerships. But after the economy wrecked the auto industry, Rich felt he had only one way to turn.

“We are all defined by our fathers,” says Bishop T. Garrett Benjamin of Mmoja Ajabu. “Everything we do in life is either in honor of, or in reaction to them.”

Phil Ferguson pulled off one of the biggest frauds in Indiana history, duping clients out of millions of dollars and staying one step ahead of the law.

This guy gets paıd to hang out with the Sexiest Woman Alive. James Bond. Don Draper.

Matt White—track star, sharp salesman, skilled golfer—has had almost everything taken away by ALS. He’s one of the luckiest guys you’ll ever meet. Just ask him.

Forty years ago, Larry Bird passed on a chance at big-time basketball. The small-town star left Bob Knight’s IU team before a single game and returned home.

The blinds were drawn. A feeling of certainty fell peacefully over the room, and with it, relief. Karen leaned over the bed, over Bethany and Susan, and began to pray. All three of them so close together, waiting.

In order to save their baby’s life, they had to risk it.

After one son died in a house fire, Kristine Bunch of Greensburg did 16 years for murder and arson while separated from her other child. Eventually she won a grueling fight for freedom and a chance to be a mother again. But some things, she discovered, were lost forever.

Ten years have passed since I last brushed Kate’s hair from her cheek. I’m not the same person I was then, and I know now I never will be. But I do the best I can with the life I have now.

“He’s a new kind of genius,” says Julia Roberts. “Which of course means he’s regular old-time talent. He does everything, every part of the job.”

On an October night in 2002, before a gala fundraiser for the National Civil Rights Hall of Fame in Gary, Indiana, things got very weird.