“Wicked” and “Gladiator II” Offer Nostalgic, Half-Satisfying Showdowns - With a musical return to Oz and a bloody epic of ancient Rome, Hollywood studios double down on blockbuster spectacle. (www.newyorker.com)
Why Josh Brolin Loves James Joyce - On the occasion of his new memoir, the “Dune” actor reflects on some of his formative reading experiences. (www.newyorker.com)
The Fantasy of Cozy Tech - From the “cozy gaming” trend to a new generation of A.I. companions, our devices are trying to swath us in a digital and physical cocoon. (www.newyorker.com)
The Technology the Trump Administration Could Use to Hack Your Phone - Other Western democracies have been roiled by the use of spyware to target political opponents, activists, journalists, and other vulnerable groups. Could it happen here? (www.newyorker.com)
The Northeast Is Becoming Fire Country - Maps of recent fires across the region resemble California in August, with hundreds of red dots. (www.newyorker.com)
How Trump Could Change the Trajectory of the War in Ukraine - Any deal will likely be favorable to the Russians, though the clock on Putin’s ability to sustain a wartime economy may be running out. (www.newyorker.com)
El Museo del Barrio Offers a Timely Triennial of Latino Art - The unique history of El Museo has allowed it to be at the vanguard of what is now more widely accepted as the purpose of museums. (www.newyorker.com)
Donald Trump’s U.F.C. Victory Party - Dana White, the C.E.O. of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, helped Trump reach young male voters. Now White says he’s done with politics: “I want nothing to do with this shit.” (www.newyorker.com)
Why Do We Talk This Way? - Technology is dramatically changing political speech, rewarding quantity and variety over the neat messages of the past. (www.newyorker.com)
Understanding Latino Support for Donald Trump - Democrats have often described Latinos as decisive when they support liberal candidates and inconsequential when they don’t. (www.newyorker.com)
Why Is Elon Musk Really Embracing Donald Trump? - After spending more than a hundred million dollars to help Trump get elected, Musk stands to earn a lot more. (www.newyorker.com)
Marielle Heller’s “Nightbitch” Explores the Feral Side of Motherhood - With “Nightbitch”—in which Amy Adams turns into a dog—the director portrays parenting as a visceral transformation. (www.newyorker.com)
Why N.S.A. Rules Say No to Smartphones, No to Texting, Yes to Podcasts - The agency, known for listening, is getting into the (extremely vetted) talking game, with “No Such Podcast.” (www.newyorker.com)
The Long Way Home After a Cancelled Flight, by David Sedaris - Had I proposed earlier that we invite someone stranded to come with us to New York, Hugh would have said no. But now there was really no way for him to back out. (www.newyorker.com)
The Frenemies Who Fought to Bring Birth Control to the U.S. - Though Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett shared a mission, they took very different approaches. Their ensuing rivalry was political, sometimes even personal. (www.newyorker.com)
With Help from Martin Scorsese, a Little Italy Organ Gets a Sprucing Up - Since the Civil War, the Erben organ has imbued St. Patrick’s Basilica with “a tinge of sadness.” (www.newyorker.com)
This Election Just Proves What I Already Believed - The list of issues I was right about goes on and on. Guns? Kamala Harris owns too many, but also not enough. (www.newyorker.com)
An Investigation Into How Prosecutors Picked Death-Penalty Juries - One of the notes on potential jurors read, “I liked him better than any other Jew But No Way,” then added, “Must Kick, too Risky.” (www.newyorker.com)
Helping “Gypsy” ’s Strippers Take It All Off Anew - George C. Wolfe finds inspiration for his production—starring Audra McDonald as Broadway’s first Black Mama Rose—watching the pasties twirl at a burlesque show. (www.newyorker.com)
I.S.O.: Ten to Fifteen Lesbians Over Sixty. Nudity Optional - The artist Samantha Nye tries to drum up models for a shoot of a female-only “pleasure party” at the Belvedere Guest House, the all-male gay compound. (www.newyorker.com)
“Before I Can Exist, I Have to Enter the Gift Shoppe,” by Lisa Russ Spaar - “America, like hope’s sharp pencil, / winks brightly beyond a gantlet of elegant shill.” (www.newyorker.com)
Should India Speak a Single Language? - In India, one of the world’s most polyglot countries, the government wants more than a billion people to embrace Hindi. One scholar thinks that would be a loss. (www.newyorker.com)
What’s the Difference Between a Rampaging Mob and a Righteous Protest? - From the French Revolution to January 6th, crowds have been heroized and vilified. Now they’re a field of study. (www.newyorker.com)
Letters from Our Readers - Readers respond to Nicholas Lemann’s article on Bidenomics, Kathryn Schulz’s essay on animal mortality, and Jazmine Hughes’s piece on Alpha Kappa Alpha. (www.newyorker.com)
Donald Trump’s Cabinet of Wonders - The President-elect’s nominations look like the most flagrant act of vindictive trolling since the rise of the Internet. But it is a trolling beyond mischief. (www.newyorker.com)
“Minimum Payment Due,” by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh - I had no story except my debt. And debt wasn’t a story. Debt was a lack of foresight. Debt was being caught up in the moment. Debt was an indication of character. (www.newyorker.com)
Restaurant Review: Upstairs and Downstairs at Clemente Bar - A new lounge above Eleven Madison Park offers refined plant-based bites and beverages while leaving fine-dining social hierarchies intact. (www.newyorker.com)
Eddie Palmieri Says Don’t Call It a Comeback - The eighty-seven-year-old pianist, bandleader, and Jazz Master is a living link between mambo and salsa—and he’s never been busier. (www.newyorker.com)
The Lizard King of Long Island - Jon Sperling secretly spread a non-native species across the Northeast. “It’s insane what this guy was doing,” a biologist said. (www.newyorker.com)
Bearing Witness to American Exploits - Peter van Agtmael’s images of war and domestic strife are arresting and almost cinematically spare, but it is the careful narrative arc of his new book, “Look at the U.S.A.,” that deepens the viewer’s experience. (www.newyorker.com)
How Donald Trump Gave Democrats the Working-Class Blues - Kamala Harris spoke of creating an “opportunity economy,” a vague idea more likely to appeal to entrepreneurs than to struggling workers. (www.newyorker.com)
The Authors of “How Democracies Die” on the New Democratic Minority - Two leading political scientists explain why voters failed to defend democracy: We never do. (www.newyorker.com)
Danielle Deadwyler on August Wilson and Denzel Washington - The actress discusses starring in the new film adaptation of “The Piano Lesson,” Wilson’s play about the Great Migration and a family torn apart by inheritance. (www.newyorker.com)
“Terrorists in Retirement” Brings Wartime Traumas Back to Life - With in-depth interviews and startling reënactments, the director Mosco Boucault details the anguish and the heroism of a mainly Jewish group of French Resistance fighters. (www.newyorker.com)
The Naïveté Behind Post-Election Despair - What sort of reply can one offer to a person who has already decided that the world ends here? (www.newyorker.com)
A Woman Wonders If She’s Human in “I’m Not a Robot” - In Victoria Warmerdam’s short film, a series of failed CAPTCHA tests plunges a woman into a strange new reality. (www.newyorker.com)
What Russia and Ukraine Want from a Second Trump Presidency - The Trump Administration will likely take the lead in any negotiations to end the war—a development that Vladimir Putin would welcome. (www.newyorker.com)
The Elegiac Art of Robert Frank - Also: Rachel Syme samples opulent advent calendars, Helen Shaw reviews “Tammy Faye” and “A Wonderful World,” “Emilia Pérez” is streaming, and more. (www.newyorker.com)
“Say Nothing” Is a Gripping Drama of Political Disillusionment - The FX adaptation of Patrick Radden Keefe’s book captures both the allure of the I.R.A.’s cause and the way violence comes to weigh on its perpetrators. (www.newyorker.com)
Why the Humanitarian Situation in Gaza Is Worse Than It’s Ever Been - As “imminent” famine looms, Israel’s legislature has voted to ban the main U.N. relief agency for Palestinians. (www.newyorker.com)
“Give Me Carmelita Tropicana!” and “Gatz” Beat On Against the Current - The playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and the performance artist Alina Troyano summon downtown’s wild spirit, and Elevator Repair Service revives its signature hit. (www.newyorker.com)
“Your Body, My Choice”: A New Rallying Cry for the Irony-Poisoned Right - It took less than twenty-four hours after Trump’s reëlection for young men to take up a slogan that could define the coming era of gendered regression: “Your body, my choice.” (www.newyorker.com)
The Value—and Limits—of Seeking Comfort in Art - In the days since Donald Trump’s reëlection, art has offered a distraction for those reeling from the news. But what does it mean to turn away when circumstances demand our attention? (www.newyorker.com)
Our Driverless Cars Are More Human Than Ever - Our alert system automatically blares a train horn if the vehicle ahead of you fails to speed off within 0.28 seconds of the traffic light turning green. That’ll keep traffic moving! (www.newyorker.com)
The Gorgeous Mumbai Rhapsody of “All We Imagine as Light” - Payal Kapadia’s drama of women’s solidarity, a major prizewinner at Cannes, pays radiant homage to a city and its people. (www.newyorker.com)
Chris Hayes on the New Trump Coalition, and What Democrats Do Next - “There’s a tension between planning and future-tripping, and I’m trying not to future-trip too much” the MSNBC host says. “The first big thing that we all got to get our heads around is: What is this mass-deportation thing going to look like?” (www.newyorker.com)
Annette Gordon-Reed on the Dark Side of the American Story - The morning after the election, the historian discussed some books that shed light on the precedents for our fractured political moment. (www.newyorker.com)
How R.E.M. Created Alternative Music - In the cultural wasteland of the Reagan era, they showed that a band could break through to mass appeal without being cheesy, or nostalgic, or playing hair metal. (www.newyorker.com)
Pete Hegseth’s Path from Fox News to Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense - No decision more clearly reveals Donald Trump’s disdain for his country’s armed forces than his selection of the TV host as his Secretary of Defense. (www.newyorker.com)
How Elon Musk Rebranded Trump - The tech billionaire’s alliance with the President-elect has far-reaching implications for the incoming Administration. (www.newyorker.com)
Career Fair, Class of 2028 - Become an A.I. operator. The work is dull, but you’ll make enough money for rations and to live in a pipe in Williamsburg with twenty other people. (www.newyorker.com)
Republican Victory and the Ambience of Information - For years, Democrats have sought to win elections by micro-targeting communities with detailed facts. What if the secret is big, sloppy notions seeded nationwide? (www.newyorker.com)
“Goodbye, Morganza” Follows the Legacy of a Black Family’s Property Loss - Devon Blackwell’s short documentary explores how her great-grandparents lost the house they had owned since 1892, and the impact of that loss on generations of her family. (www.newyorker.com)
The Election Was About the Issues After All - The fifteen-dollar minimum wage, a core progressive issue, won ballot measures in red states. Why have Democrats stopped pushing for it? (www.newyorker.com)
Bonus: Your Season 3 Questions, Answered - Was it scary to knock on all those Marines’ doors? What was it like to report in Iraq? Is it still possible for any Marines to face consequences for what happened in Haditha? The In the Dark team sits down to answer your questions. (www.newyorker.com)
A Grandson’s Urgent Chronicle of Family Life in Small-Town Ohio - In Adali Schell’s “New Paris,” which documents his family in the aftermath of death and divorce, individuals are more complicated than the worst thing happening to them. (www.newyorker.com)
January 6, 2025 - The Capitol is breached. Security cameras catch Senator Josh Hawley running in fear from a passel of L.G.B.T.Q.I.A. activists attempting to garland him in Pride bunting. (www.newyorker.com)
Sam Gold’s “Romeo Juliet” Is Shakespeare for the Youth - Gold, a celebrated Shakespeare director, designed his theatre production for a young audience. “It’s loud. I’m willing to hear the complaints, because I have risk tolerance,” he said. (www.newyorker.com)
“Emilia Pérez” Is an Incurious Musical About a Trans Drug Lord - The performances of Karla Sofía Gascón and Zoe Saldaña bring energy and emotion, but the movie never gets beyond its splashy surfaces. (www.newyorker.com)
New York’s Clock Master to City Hall: Time’s Up! - Eighty-five-year-old Marvin Schneider and his seventy-four-year-old apprentice have staged a five-year-long protest against the landmarks commission over a famous clock tower. (www.newyorker.com)
Letters from Our Readers - Readers respond to Parul Sehgal’s review of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “The Message” and Tad Friend’s Profile of the rare-book dealer Glenn Horowitz. (www.newyorker.com)
A Début Novel Captures the Start of India’s Modi Era - In “Quarterlife,” Devika Rege uses three very different protagonists to explore the country’s ideological ferment—setting them first at play, then at war. (www.newyorker.com)
At COP29, the Sun Sets on U.S. Climate Leadership - Just how bad a second Trump Administration will be for climate policy remains to be seen, but the most likely scenarios are all pretty bleak. (www.newyorker.com)
The Morning After the 2024 Election at the White House - A teary voter tours the People’s House and tries to find perspective in the relics of the “Honest and Wise Men” who came before. (www.newyorker.com)
What’s Your Parenting-Failure Style? - Like to watch TikToks while your toddler eats a bagel from the subway floor? Take this quiz to determine how bad a mom or dad you really are. (www.newyorker.com)
The Painful Pleasures of the New York Tattoo Convention - The art endures partly because it’s rooted in the moment—the surrender of one person to another. (www.newyorker.com)
Donald Trump’s Victory and the Politics of Inflation - Joe Biden’s strong record on jobs and Kamala Harris’s vow to reduce the cost of living couldn’t prevent the Democrats from succumbing to a global anti-incumbency wave. (www.newyorker.com)
Is the Twentieth-Century Novel a Genre? - An ambitious new book sees hidden currents linking writers as disparate as Colette, Thomas Mann, D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, Ralph Ellison, and Chinua Achebe. (www.newyorker.com)
Eve’s Memoir, “Who’s That Girl?,” and Other Questions - The Philadelphia-born rapper on stage clothes (“Jumpsuit, bitch!”), the Diddy situation, and her run-ins with Questlove and Jay-Z. It’s a Philly thing. (www.newyorker.com)
The British Artist Jadé Fadojutimi Has a Color Instinct - In a London warehouse pumping with dance music and movie soundtracks, Jadé Fadojutimi paints exuberant canvases all night long. (www.newyorker.com)
Democrats Tried to Counter Donald Trump’s Viciousness Toward Women with Condescension - The Harris campaign felt the need to remind women voters that they can vote for whomever they want. Women understood this. The campaign failed to. (www.newyorker.com)
Donald Trump’s 2024 Election and the Prospect of Corruption, by Rachel Maddow - Authoritarian rule always entails corruption. With Donald Trump in office, watch your wallet. (www.newyorker.com)
“Heavy Snow,” by Han Kang - I have made my way here at Inseon’s request. Because she said, I need you to go to my place in Jeju. If you don’t, she’ll die. (www.newyorker.com)
Pope Francis, the Cardinals, and “Conclave” - The Vatican’s Synod on Synodality was nothing like papal gatherings of cinematic lore, but it clearly reflects Francis’s view of what the Church should be. (www.newyorker.com)
Haruki Murakami on Rethinking Early Work - The author discusses his latest novel, “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” and his growth as a writer. (www.newyorker.com)
Restaurant Review: Bridges - Bridges, a chic new restaurant from a former Estela chef, offers indulgence through restraint, with eye-opening results. (www.newyorker.com)
A Dark Reminder of What American Society Has Been and Could Be Again - How an obsessive hatred of immigrants and people of color and deep-seated fears about the empowerment of women led to the Klan’s rule in Indiana. (www.newyorker.com)
The Feminist Critic Who Kept Flaubert on His Toes - For years, the writer flirted and exchanged ideas with Amélie Bosquet—until her ideas threatened his work. (www.newyorker.com)
Into the Phones of Teens - “Social Studies,” a documentary series by Lauren Greenfield, follows a group of young people, and screen-records their phones, to capture how social media has reshaped their lives. (www.newyorker.com)
Donald Trump Returns. What Now? - “This is the pivotal four years,” Susan B. Glasser says. “We’re going to understand whether something like an American strongman can arise within our system right now or not.” (www.newyorker.com)
Canvassing for Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania - Going door-to-door in Pennsylvania felt intense and hopeful, but after Trump’s victory in the state a few encounters kept floating back. (www.newyorker.com)
It Can Happen Here: Reckoning with Donald Trump’s 2024 Election Victory - Everyone who realizes with proper alarm that Trump’s reëlection is a deeply dangerous moment in American life must think hard about where we are. (www.newyorker.com)
Donald Trump’s Reëlection, and America’s Future - David Remnick joins Evan Osnos, Jane Mayer, and Susan Glasser to explain how Trump won the race, and what his rhetoric of vengeance and retribution portends for his return to power. (www.newyorker.com)
Donald Trump’s Supreme Court Majority Could Easily Rule Through 2045 - Democrats failed to make the Supreme Court itself a major campaign issue, but what comes after the Dobbs decision could very well be worse, and more wide-reaching. (www.newyorker.com)
What Does It Mean That Donald Trump Is a Fascist? - Donald Trump takes the tools of dictators and adapts them for the Internet. We should expect him to try to cling to power until death, and create a cult of January 6th martyrs. (www.newyorker.com)
The Reckoning of the Democratic Party - Donald Trump won votes across racial and class lines on Tuesday night. Are Republicans now the more diverse voice of the working class? (www.newyorker.com)
“Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” Transcends the Holiday-Movie Genre - Tyler Thomas Taormina’s comedy drama about a Long Island family boasts some of the year’s sharpest characterizations and a strikingly original narrative form. (www.newyorker.com)
Kacey Musgraves, Offbeat Pageant Princess - Also: Hilton Als on theatrical magic from David Cromer and Zoë Winters, Ralph Lemon at MOMA PS1, “A Real Pain” reviewed, and more. (www.newyorker.com)
How Trump’s Election Victory in 2024 Differs from 2016 - We will be a fundamentally different country by the end of the next Administration. Indeed, we already are. (www.newyorker.com)
A Fourth-Rate Entertainer, a Third-Rate Businessman, and a Two-Time President - The 2024 election, like the one in 2016, had the same nutty and vapid Donald Trump, the same retrograde gender politics, and the same result. (www.newyorker.com)
After Trump’s Reëlection, How Can Americans Rebuild a Common Life? - Visiting the site where the Civil War began, for clues on how the cold war of the present may end. (www.newyorker.com)
How Trump Took Back America - “I don’t understand why the Democratic Party makes the decisions that it does,” The New Yorker’s Jay Caspian Kang says. “I find that the more reporting I do, it’s actually more confounding to me.” (www.newyorker.com)
How Donald Trump, the Leader of White Grievance, Gained Among Hispanic Voters - In 2016, the idea that Trump was a cloaked white supremacist made him seem like a fringe character. What does it mean that his popularity has increased? (www.newyorker.com)
The End of Kamala Harris’s Campaign - At Howard University, a sombre crowd came out to support their candidate and witness history. (www.newyorker.com)
Reading “King Lear” During Hurricane Season - Above my desk, I keep a Post-it note with a quote from the play: “The worst is not so long as we can say ‘This is the worst.’ ” (www.newyorker.com)
How America Embraced Gender War - Both Trump’s and Harris’s campaigns framed the Presidential election as a contest between men and women. Did the results prove them right? (www.newyorker.com)
Can Direct Democracy Save Abortion Rights? - Voters are amending their state constitutions to protect reproductive freedom—and discovering the limitations of these measures in the post-Dobbs era. (www.newyorker.com)
Donald Trump’s West Palm Beach Victory Celebration - Surrounded by an ever-expanding cast of MAGA characters, the perpetual candidate becomes President-elect again. (www.newyorker.com)
Jean Hanff Korelitz’s All-Time Favorite Sequels - The New York Times best-selling author of “The Sequel” discusses some standout follow-up novels, including ones by Erica Jong, Chaim Potok, and Scott Turow. (www.newyorker.com)
Donald Trump’s Second Term Is Joe Biden’s Real Legacy - How the President’s protracted refusal to step aside as the Democratic nominee has imperilled his policy achievements—and the country. (www.newyorker.com)
The Amazing, Disappearing Johnny Carson - Carson pioneered a new style of late-night hosting—relaxed, improvisatory, risk-averse, and inscrutable. (www.newyorker.com)
Offering Dignity for Those Who Die Alone in “People Like Us” - Pedro Samper’s short film follows a woman who operates a cemetery in Colombia for people who die, mostly Venezuelan migrants, without anyone to see their burial. (www.newyorker.com)
Donald Trump’s Revenge - The former President will return to the White House older, less inhibited, and far more dangerous than ever before. (www.newyorker.com)
Quincy Jones Had Something for Everyone - The music superproducer knew that if you have to find your way to a kind of telepathy with an artist, operating as one mind, you can’t speed past the human element. (www.newyorker.com)
“A Real Pain” Fails to Stay in Its Discomfort Zone - In Jesse Eisenberg’s film, a shticky bromance obscures a thoughtful attempt to probe the legacy of the Holocaust. (www.newyorker.com)
Election 2024: Live Results Map - The latest vote counts, news, and updates from the Presidential, House, Senate, and gubernatorial elections. (www.newyorker.com)
Ways to Respond When You’re Stressed and Someone Tells You “Not to Stress” - Smile and keep emphatically blinking until they go away. (www.newyorker.com)
Even Losing May Not Stop Trump’s Campaign of Vengeance - But on the eve of another razor-thin election, it sure beats the alternative. (www.newyorker.com)
What Is Cornel West Thinking? - The public intellectual’s Presidential campaign could ease Donald Trump’s path to the White House. Why won’t he drop out? (www.newyorker.com)
A Farewell Tour for the Outdoor Dining Shed - As the free-for-all architectural symbols of pandemic-era New York are torn down by city decree, a photographic chronicler of the sidewalk structures says goodbye. (www.newyorker.com)
The Americans Prepping for a Second Civil War - Many now believe that the U.S. could descend into political violence. Some are joining survivalist communities, canning food—and buying guns. (www.newyorker.com)
How the Artist Barry Blitt Turns Politics Into Cartoon Cover Gold - Armed with watercolors and a “passive-aggressive” sense of humor, the illustrator finds the funny, even in ugly times. (www.newyorker.com)
Letters from Our Readers - Readers respond to Vinson Cunningham’s review of “Mr. McMahon” and Rivka Galchen’s piece on the researchers studying birdsong for signs of real language. (www.newyorker.com)
Will Kamala Harris Win the Kamala Harris Vote? - The handful of Kamala Harrises who aren’t the Vice-President review the perks (wayward donors) and the perils (threatening phone calls) of their name. (www.newyorker.com)
Willie Nelson’s Latest Is a Cannabis Cookbook - The ninety-one-year-old singer might outsmoke Snoop Dogg, but for lunch he’ll stick to bacon-and-tomato sandwiches. (www.newyorker.com)
The Brothers Grimm Were Dark for a Reason - Their version of “Cinderella” or “Rapunzel” could be disturbing. But turning Germany into a unified nation, they believed, meant unearthing its authentic culture. (www.newyorker.com)
How Syria Became the Middle East’s Drug Dealer - Bashar al-Assad has propped up his regime by exploiting the Middle East’s love of an amphetamine called captagon. (www.newyorker.com)
When Andrew Carnegie Was a Cotton Spinner: Inside the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen - You won’t find any taxidermied animal heads, like those at the Harvard Club, across the street, but there are hundreds of very cool locks and safes. (www.newyorker.com)
The Artificial State - As American civic life has become increasingly shaped by algorithms, trust in government has plummeted. Is there any turning back? (www.newyorker.com)
Charles Ives, Connoisseur of Chaos - Celebrating the composer’s hundred-and-fiftieth birthday, at a festival in Bloomington, Indiana. (www.newyorker.com)
Watching an American Election from Across the Pond - Louisa Compton is overseeing coverage for Channel 4, trying to explain a strange election cycle to a bewildered Britain. (www.newyorker.com)
“The Honest Island,” by Greg Jackson - Only as the memory faded and he struggled to detain it did he realize, with a start, that he had remembered something. (www.newyorker.com)
A Forgotten Eyewitness to Civil-Rights-Era Mississippi - As resistance to integration mounted, Florence Mars bought a camera and began to photograph thousands of subjects, including the trial of the killers of Emmett Till. (www.newyorker.com)
Trump’s Final Days on the Campaign Trail - Under assault from all sides, in the last weeks of his campaign, the former President speaks often of enemies from within, including those trying to take his life. (www.newyorker.com)
Helen, Help Me: What If You’re Dining with a Jerk? - Our restaurant critic offers advice on martini drinking, cutting through restaurant hype, and staying on servers’ good sides. (www.newyorker.com)
The Economic Philosophy of Donald Harris - The Trump campaign has portrayed the Vice-President’s father as a Marxist. He insists he’s been caricatured. (www.newyorker.com)
Key Moments from the Donald Trump–Kamala Harris 2024 Presidential Election - Twenty-five stunning moments of the 2024 Presidential campaign, as told by the people who witnessed them up close. (www.newyorker.com)
How Pro-Trump Activists Hijacked Georgia’s Election Board - Since the 2020 race, the state has been at the center of a national movement to contest elections. Now a group of unelected officials is sowing suspicions about the 2024 results. (www.newyorker.com)
Aleksandar Hemon Reads ZZ Packer - The author joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere,” which was published in The New Yorker in 2000. (www.newyorker.com)
The Divided Soul of “Bad Kreyòl” - Dominique Morisseau meditates on identity, and on the possibilities of language, in her new play, set in Haiti. (www.newyorker.com)
Why American Democracy Is in Danger, with Michael Beschloss - “This is an election of a kind we have never seen before in American history,” the historian said, at The New Yorker Festival on October 26th. (www.newyorker.com)
Rachel Maddow on the Fascist Threat in America, Then and Now - The MSNBC host says that Trump’s authoritarian message is timeless. “You can sell [it] to people who are in great need of relief,” she says. “But you can also sell it to billionaires.” (www.newyorker.com)
Liz Cheney on Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Jeff Bezos - Once a top Republican in Congress, and now a supporter of Kamala Harris, Cheney cancelled her subscription to the Washington Post after Bezos blocked its endorsement: “It’s a disgrace.” (www.newyorker.com)
How Far Can Political Ads Go to Swing the Vote? - In her commercials, Kamala Harris walks a line between illuminating the issues and acknowledging the world-historic craziness of her opponent; Donald Trump targets his base. (www.newyorker.com)
Dorothy Parker and the Art of the Literary Takedown - Her reviews are not contemptuous, a common pitfall for her imitators. They are simply unbridled in their dislike. (www.newyorker.com)
Is the Labor Movement Screwed No Matter Who Wins the Election? - A series of legal challenges could radically disempower the National Labor Relations Board—and other administrative agencies—regardless of who controls Congress or the White House. (www.newyorker.com)
The Tucker Carlson Road Show - After his Fox show was cancelled, Carlson spent a year in the wilderness, honing his vision of what the future of Trumpism might look like. This fall, he took his act on tour. (www.newyorker.com)
The Perils of the Good-Enough Candidate - Despite Kamala Harris’s strong start, the race is now a tossup. Whatever happens, a sober reckoning with the limitations of her campaign is essential for Democrats going forward. (www.newyorker.com)
Garbage Time at the 2024 Finish Line - Nine years in, Trump is in reach of another term as the technocrats struggle to contain him. (www.newyorker.com)
Daily Cartoon: Thursday, October 31st - “I’m going door-to-door on behalf of Kamala Harris. She prefers Reese’s, but she wouldn’t say no to a Snickers.” (www.newyorker.com)
Halloween Decorations Explained - Witches and skeletons make sense for this holiday, but your guess is as good as mine when it comes to “a general spooky vibe.” (www.newyorker.com)
The Fight Over Truth in a Blue-Collar Pennsylvania County - Lackawanna County was once a Democratic stronghold. In 2024, it is a hotly contested battleground, where the stakes go far beyond politics. (www.newyorker.com)
Safeguarding the Pennsylvania Election - For months, state officials have prepared to manage the threat of far-right conspiracists who may try to “stop the steal.” (www.newyorker.com)
Critics at Large Live: Julio Torres’s Dreamy Surrealism - In projects like “Problemista” and HBO’s “Fantasmas,” the multihyphenate uses uncanny flourishes to make sense of our most convoluted bureaucratic systems. (www.newyorker.com)
In “Juror #2,” Clint Eastwood Judges the System Harshly - The ninety-four-year-old director’s courtroom thriller, starring Nicholas Hoult and Toni Collette, shows how self-interested parties can make the striving for justice yield injustices. (www.newyorker.com)
Is the Backlash to a Racist Joke Trump’s October Surprise? - “It’s not just that the comments can change the minds of some Puerto Rican voters. It’s that it might also shape the ultimate decision of Latinos broadly,” the New Yorker contributing writer Geraldo Cadava says. (www.newyorker.com)
Mackenzie Davis’s Bookshelf of Crime Stories - The actress recommends some of her favorite accounts of detectives, deaths, and the down-and-out. (www.newyorker.com)
The Conservative Strategy to Ban Abortion Nationwide - A local referendum in Texas is part of a long-term effort to block abortions through the courts. (www.newyorker.com)
The Banality of Online Recommendation Culture - A recent surge of human-curated guidance is both a reaction against and an extension of the tyranny of algorithmic recommendations. (www.newyorker.com)
Kamala Harris Makes Her Closing Argument at the Ellipse - At a rally whose location evoked January 6th, Harris sounded the alarm about Trump’s authoritarian tendencies but refused to linger in the national shame spiral that has formed around him. (www.newyorker.com)
Daily Cartoon: Wednesday, October 30th - “I used to get excited about the Great Pumpkin, too, until I got sucked into his pumpkin cult.” (www.newyorker.com)
How Binyavanga Wainaina Wrote About Africa - The Kenyan author, who died in 2019, ruthlessly took down the clichés of writing about the continent. His work is as relevant as ever. (www.newyorker.com)
Standing Up to Trump - Jeff Bezos endorsed a Trump-era slogan—“Democracy Dies in Darkness”—for his newspaper, the Washington Post. Why wouldn’t he let it endorse a candidate? (www.newyorker.com)
Delusional Rationalizations for Your Pathetically Low Uber Rider Rating - I asked the driver to crank up the A.C. so that my on-the-go pedicure would dry more quickly. Airflow settings are clearly a trigger for him. (www.newyorker.com)
Will Laken Riley’s Murder Tip Georgia? - Native-born American women are almost never killed by illegal migrants. So why has Riley become a morbid icon of Trump’s campaign? (www.newyorker.com)
If the Magic from the Movie “Practical Magic” Had Actually Been Practical - “Practical Magic” is stirring a morning cup of coffee via telekinesis. Actually Practical Magic is flossing your teeth every morning via any kind of miracle. (www.newyorker.com)
The Trump Show Comes to Madison Square Garden - The rally featured Hulk Hogan, Rudy Giuliani, “Y.M.C.A.,” and a thrum of American nativism. (www.newyorker.com)
A Family Reckons with a Father’s Wish to Be Preserved Using Cryonics in “Eternal Father” - In Ömer Sami’s documentary short, a man’s wish to be cryogenically frozen after death raises questions for his wife and children. (www.newyorker.com)
Conjuring the Worst Case - As the election nears, along with the potential mess to ensue, an apprehensive citizen retraces the steps of a man who chronicled New York’s Draft Riots. (www.newyorker.com)
Madonna’s Twelve-Year-Old Daughter in the Mix - Estere Ciccone, who goes by the d.j. name Queen Estere, didn’t wear pink, but she kept the Barbie-loving dance floor packed. (www.newyorker.com)
Making the Big Hair Big Enough in “The Apprentice” - The hairstylist Michelle Côté built the towering mid-eighties dos worn by Ivana and Mary Anne Trump, and for the title character she whipped up a tonsorial turducken. (www.newyorker.com)
Does the Enlightenment’s Great Female Intellect Need Rescuing? - Émilie du Châtelet’s scientific contributions were appreciated by some, then forgotten by all. But redeeming her as a mind shouldn’t undermine her as a woman. (www.newyorker.com)
The Haunting Otherworld of Japanese Puppet Theatre - In two piercing works, the National Bunraku Theatre’s puppets—floating, airy creatures weighted by earthly human spirits—explore the clash between duty and passion. (www.newyorker.com)
What Do Animals Understand About Death? - The question isn’t whether other creatures share our concept of mortality; it’s whether any living being truly grasps what it means to die. (www.newyorker.com)
The Mystery of Three Hundred Bodies in the Woods - The podcast “Noble,” about severe malpractice at a Georgia crematorium, shows that even the most shocking of horror stories can be sensitively told. (www.newyorker.com)
The Aid Workers Who Risk Their Lives to Bring Relief to Gaza - As the war grinds on, logistical challenges are compounded by politics, repeated evacuations, and the fear of being killed. (www.newyorker.com)
The Improbable Rise of J. D. Vance - “Hillbilly Elegy” made him famous, and his denunciations of Donald Trump brought him liberal fans. Now, as a Vice-Presidential candidate, he’s remaking his image as the heir to the MAGA movement. (www.newyorker.com)
The Door Knockers Knocking for Anyone But Trump - Three longtime political volunteers in Monroe County, Georgia, canvass for the Democrats, after a rah-rah speech by Tim Walz. (www.newyorker.com)
“Pregnancy on Street-Cleaning Day,” by Laura Kolbe - “I am dumbstruck by all those of us / who evade true grandeur and the crimson / calypso of feeling.” (www.newyorker.com)
Joe Biden’s Economic Plan Is Investing Trillions of Dollars in America - The full effects of the President’s economic policies won’t be felt for years. That might be too late for Kamala Harris and other Democrats. (www.newyorker.com)
Letters from Our Readers - Readers respond to Eyal Press’s article about blue-collar voters, Hannah Goldfield’s piece on Southern California’s health industry, and Sage Mehta’s essay about her father. (www.newyorker.com)
Nextdoor Reacts to the Rapture - Does anyone know what’s going on in the Smithfield area? People flying around, hellfire, terrible traffic. (www.newyorker.com)
The Rebellion of a Fruitless Apple Tree - As the rest of our culture thrives on overexposure, why shouldn’t a garden have the right to retain an air of mystery? (www.newyorker.com)
The Obamas Campaign for Kamala Harris - In Georgia, Barack Obama spoke of character, and in Michigan, Michelle Obama reminded voters of the stakes for women’s lives. (www.newyorker.com)
Marty Baron on the Washington Post’s “Spineless” Endorsement Decision - The former executive editor discusses his relationship with the newspaper’s owner, Jeff Bezos, who was reportedly behind the last-minute call to kill an editorial supporting Kamala Harris. (www.newyorker.com)
Quick, Affordable Sushi That’s Still a Cut Above - At Sendo, a Tokyo-style sushi-ya in midtown, the food’s level of sophistication well surpasses its price point. (www.newyorker.com)
Soccer Mommy’s Visceral Chronicle of Loss - On the new album “Evergreen,” the artist Sophie Allison makes sadness come alive and transform. (www.newyorker.com)
Jesse Eisenberg Has a Few Questions - The multihyphenate discusses his new film, “A Real Pain”; grappling with what it means to be good; and the scripts, songs, and jokes that “never see the light of day.” (www.newyorker.com)
“From the Wilderness,” by Yukio Mishima - When I saw the youth trembling in the dimness of my study, I had the feeling that I was looking at my own shadow. (www.newyorker.com)
On a Newly Translated Story by Yukio Mishima - A conversation with John Nathan, a biographer of Yukio Mishima, who translated the story “From the Wilderness” in this week’s issue. (www.newyorker.com)
The Radio Station That Latino Voters Trust - With Arizona in the balance, a critical political conversation is taking place on the air. (www.newyorker.com)
Living in the Shadow of an American Election - A photographer took a road trip across the country during the Presidential race. What did he see? (www.newyorker.com)
The Lies Are Winning - “We’ve moved from a moment of alternative facts with Kellyanne Conway to now embracing the idea of lies,” Jane Mayer says. (www.newyorker.com)
“Conclave” Is a Mild Thriller About a Tense Papal Election - The political maneuvering of cardinals gathered in the Vatican to choose a new Pope gives rise to fine performances but merely methodical drama. (www.newyorker.com)
Charlamagne tha God Has Some Advice for Kamala Harris and the Democrats - The “Breakfast Club” co-host talks with David Remnick about Black voters, his recent interview with the Vice-President, and why the Democratic Party needs a lot more “Bulworth.” (www.newyorker.com)
How Alpha Kappa Alpha Shaped Kamala Harris - Jazmine Hughes considers the nation’s oldest Black sorority and its most famous sister. (www.newyorker.com)
Stars Collide in “Sunset Blvd.” and “Romeo + Juliet” - Jamie Lloyd casts Nicole Scherzinger as Norma Desmond, and Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler play a Gen Z version of Shakespeare’s famous lovers. (www.newyorker.com)
Bill T. Jones’s Controversial “Still/Here,” Thirty Years Later - Also: the glamorous camp of “Drag: The Musical,” the Afropop of Angélique Kidjo, the Vatican thriller “Conclave,” and more. (www.newyorker.com)
Can Older Americans Swing the Election for Harris? - They remember a time before we conducted our public life with vulgarity—and they have a distinct memory of people like Trump. (www.newyorker.com)
What’s the Matter with Young Male Voters? - If Kamala Harris loses the election to Donald Trump, disaffected young men will inevitably shoulder much of the blame, for the simple reason that the children are our future and nothing is scarier than angry dudes. (www.newyorker.com)
“Blitz” Uses Classical Storytelling to Advance a Radical Vision of War - In Steve McQueen’s harrowing film, starring Saoirse Ronan and Elliott Heffernan, London faces threats from above—and from within. (www.newyorker.com)
Donald Trump and the F-Word - Kamala Harris embraces the “fascist” label for the ex-President, without any certainty that it will disqualify him. (www.newyorker.com)
Why No Real Antiwar Movement Has Developed in Israel - Even many of Benjamin Netanyahu’s harshest critics have supported the military campaign in Gaza. “We are seeing a different war than you are seeing,” the writer Yossi Klein Halevi says. (www.newyorker.com)
The Real and Perceived Pressures of American Parenthood - Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have presented sharply different proposals for alleviating pressure on families. But not all forms of stress are created equal. (www.newyorker.com)
Mati Diop and the Cinema of Impossible Returns - The French Senegalese director passed on big-budget Hollywood projects before making her latest film—a fantastical documentary about art restitution. (www.newyorker.com)
How Poll Watchers Could Help Trump Challenge the Election Results - “It’s impossible to overstate how much more organized Trump’s 2024 operation is than the 2020 operation,” the New Yorker contributing writer Antonia Hitchens says. (www.newyorker.com)
Help, I Need a Critic! - In the era of influencer experts and “Am I the Asshole,” advice-giving has become an integral part of our information landscape. The hosts of Critics at Large take stock of the phenomenon—and enter the fray. (www.newyorker.com)
James Graham Thinks We’re in a Crisis of Storytelling - The playwright discusses writing about people you disagree with, what we can learn from our recent history, and a new musical he wrote with Elton John and Jake Shears, “Tammy Faye,” based on the life of the American televangelist. (www.newyorker.com)
Jim Moore Reads Jane Mead - The poet joins Kevin Young to read and discuss “I wonder if I will miss the moss,” by Jane Mead, and his own poem “Mother.” (www.newyorker.com)
Orna Guralnik on the Entanglement of Politics and Private Life - The psychotherapist, who appears in the documentary TV series “Couples Therapy,” talks about books that illuminate the relationship between sweeping social phenomena and our most intimate experiences. (www.newyorker.com)
The Political Journey of a Top Latino Strategist for Trump - Why Carlos Trujillo thinks that Latinos across the country can be persuaded to see Trump the way that immigrant conservatives in Florida do. (www.newyorker.com)
Telling the Story of Ethiopia’s Red Terror Through a Family Artifact - In Ruth Hunduma’s short documentary “The Medallion,” a mother’s memories serve as a window to a history of genocide and survival. (www.newyorker.com)
The Frightening Familiarity of Late-Nineties Office Photos - Lars Tunbjörk documented the rise of alienating online work. His images should remind us that it didn’t have to be this way. (www.newyorker.com)
The Crypto Betting Platform Predicting a Trump Win - Polymarket has seen a recent surge in pro-Trump election bets. Is it the movement of a rational market or a concerted campaign? (www.newyorker.com)
The Megachurch That Tried to Confront Racism - A political scientist spent years at Crossroads Church, talking to members of a bespoke racial-justice course. What did she find? (www.newyorker.com)
“Anora” Is More for Show Than for Substance - Sean Baker’s hectic drama, about the mismatch of a sex worker and an oligarch’s son, masks its synthetic storytelling with authentic locations. (www.newyorker.com)
Daily Cartoon: Tuesday, October 22nd - “And there’s extra ‘frunk’ space for all the baggage that comes with buying a car from Elon Musk.” (www.newyorker.com)
Excerpts from a Sitcom Set in New York City by Writers Who Are Clearly from California - Rebecca and Hannah’s average-size, twenty-five-hundred-square-foot apartment overlooking Central Park is perfect for accommodating big groups. (www.newyorker.com)
What Happens to Hamas and Hezbollah Now That Their Leaders Have Been Killed? - The Israeli government’s “triumphalism” may be premature given the American track record on counterterrorism in the Middle East. (www.newyorker.com)
How to Watch the 2024 New Yorker Festival - On October 26th and 27th, a live stream will broadcast events featuring Rachel Maddow, Atul Gawande, Liz Cheney, Sara Bareilles, and more. (www.newyorker.com)
The U.S. Spies Who Sound the Alarm About Election Interference - A group of intelligence officials confers about when to alert the public to foreign meddling. (www.newyorker.com)
The Tight-Knit World of Kamala Harris’s College Sorority - A.K.A., the oldest Black sorority, expects excellence and complete discretion. How are members responding to their most famous sister’s Presidential campaign? (www.newyorker.com)
Hannah Gadsby Bravely Meets Old Age (Their Mid-Forties) - The comedian, whose new show’s title, “WOOF!,” might refer to dogs or to a reaction to a Gadsby joke, ponders the very particular environments in which they flourish. (www.newyorker.com)
The Decline of the Working Musician - You used to be able to make a living playing in a band. A new book, “Band People,” charts how that changed. (www.newyorker.com)
The Unexpected Pleasures of a Dirty Soda - Fountain drinks spiked with syrups, creamers, and fruit purées became a sensation among Mormon mothers in Utah. Now they’re finding fans across America. (www.newyorker.com)
A Controversial Rare-Book Dealer Tries to Rewrite His Own Ending - Glenn Horowitz built a fortune selling the archives of writers such as Vladimir Nabokov and Alice Walker. Then a rock star pressed charges. (www.newyorker.com)
A Virginia Living Room Moves Onto Fifth Avenue - The opera singer Davóne Tines visits a re-creation of his rural childhood home at the Cooper Hewitt, where he’ll perform with his grandparents. (www.newyorker.com)
“Meaning of the Word ‘Never,’ ” by Deborah Garrison - “My childhood room, / hippie flowered spread folded down / at the single pillow.” (www.newyorker.com)
Brighton Beach Goes Hollywood - Sean Baker, who directed the action rom-com “Anora,” meets the actors Karren Karagulian and Vache Tovmasyan for a tour of Russophone Brooklyn, where the cast lived during filming. (www.newyorker.com)
Briefly Noted - “Shakespeare’s Tragic Art,” “The Irish Republican Brotherhood 1914-1924,” “The Third Realm,” and “The Book of George.” (www.newyorker.com)
What Would Donald Trump Do to the Economy? - If he takes office, a trade war, higher prices, labor shortages, a gaping deficit, and a showdown between the White House and the Fed all seem highly likely. (www.newyorker.com)
“Lovely One,” Reviewed: Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson’s Memoir - We’re primed to read Justices’ accounts of their lives for clues to their jurisprudence. Should we? (www.newyorker.com)
Hot (and Sweaty and Maybe Blistered) Singles! - In a run club organized by the dating app Lunge, participants—dressed to indicate their relationship status—meet up to find love over five kilometres. (www.newyorker.com)
Sovereignty for Sale - It goes way beyond tax havens and offshore banking. Enterprising countries have figured out how to put their legal systems at the disposal of corporate interests. (www.newyorker.com)
Parent-Teacher Conference - There’s been a noticeable decline in Billy’s homework, which leads me to believe there’s some trouble at home. (www.newyorker.com)
“Disclaimer” Is a Baffling Misfire from a Great Auteur - Alfonso Cuarón’s foray into television is a work of such vacuity that even Cate Blanchett can’t salvage it. (www.newyorker.com)
Could Talking About Climate Change Now Help Kamala Harris’s Campaign? - The next President will have to deal with a stream of unnatural disasters. So perhaps it would be wise for Harris to more aggressively remind voters of the stakes. (www.newyorker.com)
Restaurant Review: The Vivid Second Life of a Mexican Supper Club - In a colorful space in Hamilton Heights, Cocina Consuelo does serious renditions of beef birria, mole negro, and cinnamon-scented café de olla. (www.newyorker.com)