Pence Flees in Terror After No One but One Woman Shows Up at Rally - “All the color drained from his face,” a campaign aide said. “Mike was even whiter than usual.” (www.newyorker.com)
The Supreme Court’s Damper on the Right to Strike - In a near-unanimous opinion, the Justices made it easier for employers to sue labor unions for damages caused by a work stoppage. (www.newyorker.com)
You’re Not a Real Parent Until These Milestones - Why do they have ugly babies on commercials when your perfect baby is RIGHT HERE! (www.newyorker.com)
Ken Jennings Has Some Questions About Death - The “Jeopardy!” host on the meaning of trivia, the awkwardness of personal anecdotes, and his new book—a travel guide to the afterlife. (www.newyorker.com)
A Private Garden as an Antidote to Isolation - The photographer Siân Davey said, of her family’s plot in the South of England, “It felt like the potential for the whole world was held in that garden.” (www.newyorker.com)
What the Shakeup at CNN Says About the Future of Cable News - Will Chris Licht’s attempts to move the network toward the center outlast his own brief tenure as C.E.O.? (www.newyorker.com)
The Day That Wildfire Smoke Shrouded New York City - As the world warms and Canada burns, what once seemed unprecedented is becoming familiar. (www.newyorker.com)
The Flimsy Legal Theory That Could Upend American Elections - How the independent-state-legislature theory—originally a cynical gambit by George W. Bush’s campaign team—became a threat to democracy. (www.newyorker.com)
Pence Endorsed by National Association of Ass-Kissers - “During his four years as Vice-President, Mike Pence brought flattery and obsequiousness to new heights,” the N.A.A. statement read. (www.newyorker.com)
The Afro-Esotericism of Awol Erizku - The prolific artist knows that contemporary Blackness, made and unmade on the stage of capitalism, is as much defined by its spiritual reckonings as it is by the elemental stuff. (www.newyorker.com)
How to Talk to Your Child About Minesweeper - You may have to explain several concepts that aren’t covered in school, such as underground munitions and the bored office workers who pretend to digitally sweep for them. (www.newyorker.com)
A Different Kind of Coming-Out Story in “Dad Can Dance” - When Jamie Ross learned about their father’s unexpected history—in ballet and romance—it opened the door to discovery and reconciliation. (www.newyorker.com)
What I Learned at My Audience with the Pope - Addressing the group, Francis spoke about the role of the imagination in the life of Catholicism. (www.newyorker.com)
“The Idol” Is All Smoke and Mirrors - The kinky hookups between the protagonists, played by Lily-Rose Depp and the Weeknd, are wince-inducing, but hardly scandalizing in the way that the HBO show intends them to be. (www.newyorker.com)
What if We’re Thinking About Inflation All Wrong? - Isabella Weber’s heterodox ideas about government price controls are transforming policy in the United States and across Europe. (www.newyorker.com)
HBO’s “Burden of Proof” and the Problem of the Passive Mother - The true-crime miniseries paints a frightening picture of a familiar dynamic that it fails to fully explore. (www.newyorker.com)
Contract for a Happy Marriage - Let-It-Sit-like-a-Hot-Roast Clause: Both parties agree to stop each other from replying to e-mails in a manner that will “make them look like the crazy one.” (www.newyorker.com)
What Does the Debt-Ceiling Agreement Say About the U.S. Political System? - The bipartisan deal showed that the government is still capable of avoiding a self-inflicted disaster, but a credit-ratings agency warns it is suffering from slow rot. (www.newyorker.com)
Is It Possible to Be Both Moderate and Anti-Woke? - A small nonprofit launched by the journalist Bari Weiss devolves into tribalism. (www.newyorker.com)
Skeptics Question Whether Pence Has More to Offer Than Raw Sexual Magnetism - For years, he has wisely refused to dine alone with any woman other than his wife, fearing the havoc that his overpowering pheromones could wreak. (www.newyorker.com)
The World-Changing Trees of Vincent van Gogh - In “Van Gogh’s Cypresses,” a new show at the Met, the artist seems to bend nature itself toward his brush. (www.newyorker.com)
Dorothy Tse’s “Owlish” Reviewed - In “Owlish,” Dorothy Tse’s dreamlike début novel, a lonely professor falls in love with a mechanical ballerina. (www.newyorker.com)
How the Marvel Cinematic Universe Swallowed Hollywood - Robert Redford, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Rudd, and Angela Bassett now disappear into movies whose plots can come down to “Keep glowy thing away from bad guy.” (www.newyorker.com)
How a Fringe Legal Theory Became a Threat to Democracy - Lawyers tried to use the independent-state-legislature theory to sway the outcomes of the 2000 and 2020 elections. What if it were to become the law of the land? (www.newyorker.com)
The Creator of ChatGPT on the Rise of Artificial Intelligence - Sam Altman, the C.E.O. of OpenAI, discusses the surge of A.I. tools, such as ChatGPT, explaining their applications, limitations, and the need for government regulation. (www.newyorker.com)
Big Bad Berghain Bouncer Shows Brooklyn His Berlin Portraits - Sven Marquardt, the überdoorman of the German techno scene, holds an exhibition/dance party for his Robert Mapplethorpe-inspired photographs. (www.newyorker.com)
The Fiction of Susan Taubes, Reconsidered - Her suicide, on publication of her first novel, made her an icon of doomed femininity, but rediscovered works are revealing a more complex writer. (www.newyorker.com)
The Mail - Letters respond to Adam Iscoe’s piece about mental illness and homelessness, Jeannie Suk Gersen’s article on defamation law, and Ian Frazier’s Shouts & Murmurs about Pig Latin. (www.newyorker.com)
The Bon Iver Boys Bob for Bass and Bluegill at the Harlem Meer - The drummer Sean Carey, who schedules his tours around fly-fishing stops, tries out some urban angling in Central Park with his bandmates Zach Hanson and Ben Lester. (www.newyorker.com)
Art War! A Vigilante Battles Zabar’s Over a Banksy - An obsessed fan, claiming the grocer wasn’t properly cleaning New York’s last public Banksy, took matters into his own hands. But could he be won over with babka? (www.newyorker.com)
“The Three Graces,” by Paul Tran - Poetry by Paul Tran: “Who could care about the probability of love when brought, like us, to this / world under endless darkness?” (www.newyorker.com)
Economists Love Immigration. Why Do So Many Americans Hate It? - In a democracy, a policy appraisal has to contend with political as well as economic consequences. (www.newyorker.com)
A Network Executive Writes a Sitcom - Shouts & Murmurs by Teddy Wayne: FRANKLIN is foiled by his battle-axe mother-in-law. (Studio audience gives standing ovation for the show’s brave pro-management stance.) (www.newyorker.com)
The Writer Who Insists He Knew Tennessee Williams - James Grissom says that he met the playwright and his famous muses, and quoted them extensively in his work. Not everyone believes him. (www.newyorker.com)
“Nausicaä,” by Frank X. Gaspar - Poetry by Frank X. Gaspar: “Maybe a spark jumped, but there is no name / for the god of fragments—there was just a fire I believed in.” (www.newyorker.com)
How Richard Hell Found His Vocation - The punk-rock legend, who is publishing a book of new poetry later this month, speaks about nineteen-seventies New York, drugs, mortality, and the evolution of his writing. (www.newyorker.com)
Child Labor Is on the Rise - State legislatures across the country are making it easier to hire minors in low-paid and dangerous jobs. (www.newyorker.com)
Is the Debt-Ceiling Deal a Template to Fix Washington, or a Mere Blip? - As lawmakers at the Capitol avoid financial catastrophe, our political roundtable looks at the debt-ceiling compromise and asks whether the center can hold in today’s rage-filled politics. (www.newyorker.com)
The Rapturous Romance and Desperate Tragedy of Elaine May’s “A New Leaf” - The actor-director’s feature début is among the greatest of romantic comedies. (www.newyorker.com)
Should We, and Can We, Put the Brakes on Artificial Intelligence? - Sam Altman, who ushered in ChatGPT, and Yoshua Bengio, an early pioneer of A.I., discuss the growing concerns surrounding unfettered, nonhuman intelligence. (www.newyorker.com)
Ted Koppel on Covering—and Befriending—Henry Kissinger - Did the veteran newscaster give Kissinger a pass on his hundredth birthday? (www.newyorker.com)
The Abortion Fight Has Voters Turning to Ballot Initiatives - And Republicans are increasingly attempting to limit that direct-democracy option. (www.newyorker.com)
The Cat Lockdown That Divided a German Town - Cats in Walldorf, Germany, can’t go outside when crested larks are breeding. Is it cruelty or conservation? (www.newyorker.com)
Questions That Are Key to the Electric Vehicle’s Future Success - If your electric vehicle gets struck by lightning, is that like getting a free tank of gas? (www.newyorker.com)
Zara Forest Grill Is Worth the Trip to Staten Island - The restaurant’s big, broad menu includes diner fare but also extensive Turkish offerings, such as gozleme, labneh, Iskender kebab, and spectacular desserts. (www.newyorker.com)
A Family’s Journey to Acting and Acceptance in “Foreign Uncle” - After Sining Xiang came out to his parents, he decided to dramatize the experience in a short film—and cast his loved ones as themselves. (www.newyorker.com)
Rooftop Films, a New York Mainstay - The outdoor screening series includes “In the Heights,” in Queens, and a première of the post-apocalyptic drama “Biosphere,” at Brooklyn Grange, in Sunset Park. (www.newyorker.com)
“Past Lives” and “Squaring the Circle,” Reviewed - This story of childhood friends from Seoul who reunite as adults in New York is less a love story than a meditation on transplantation and transience. (www.newyorker.com)
The Irrational Exuberance of a Non-Catastrophe - The bipartisan debt deal was a win for both Biden and McCarthy, but it might not have been the breakthrough Washington was waiting for. (www.newyorker.com)
Peter Foley, a Gifted Composer Gone Too Soon - In the summer of his death, Peter Foley and I talked about the shape of an artist’s life made under the special pressures of the modern musical theatre. (www.newyorker.com)
Shia LaBeouf Discovers the Political Power of Catholic Ecstasy in “Padre Pio” - Abel Ferrara’s Italian period piece is scattershot but undeniably passionate. (www.newyorker.com)
Ottessa Moshfegh Reads David Means - The author joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss the story “Two Ruminations on a Homeless Brother,” which was published in a 2017 issue of the magazine. (www.newyorker.com)
The Sound and Fury of the House Freedom Caucus - To pass a debt-limit bill, Kevin McCarthy had to defy the Republican Party’s most conservative members. Will he pay a price? (www.newyorker.com)
The Hidden Costs of Weddings - You tell yourself that it will all be worth it for the registry. You drink. You dance. At some point, you pass out. (www.newyorker.com)
How “Succession” Captured the Trump-Era Hangover - Naomi Fry on the HBO series as a post-hopefulness piece of entertainment, and on the political implications of the finale. (www.newyorker.com)
The Case That Being Poor and Black Is Bad for Your Health - The public-health professor Arline T. Geronimus has spent a forty-year career researching how inequality takes a “weathering” toll on the body. (www.newyorker.com)
Americans Struggle to Remember Who Chris Christie Is Again - “I could be wrong, but I vaguely remember that he was maybe this guy lying down on a beach?” a resident of Phoenix said. (www.newyorker.com)
These Are the Things That Must Happen to You - Your car will be towed. You are going to hate your friend’s boyfriend. You will become friends with someone no one else likes. (www.newyorker.com)
The Zen Wisdom of Sarah Silverman - The comic discusses the recent death of her parents, how hosting a call-in podcast has been so freeing, and her new standup special, “Someone You Love.” (www.newyorker.com)
The Turkish Elections Swung from Hope to Despair - The corrupt state that President Erdoğan built essentially guaranteed his reëlection. (www.newyorker.com)
The Debt-Ceiling Deal Could Be a Lot Worse - If House Republicans were trying to create a draconian new fiscal framework that would dominate American politics for the next decade, they failed to achieve their goal. (www.newyorker.com)
The Rise of Latino White Supremacy - At a time of rising racial violence, Latinos are potential perpetrators and potential victims. (www.newyorker.com)
The Understated Pleasures of HBO’s “Somebody Somewhere” - The loosely autobiographical series imagines how the hypersexual alt-cabaret diva-comedian Bridget Everett might have turned out had she never become Bridget Everett. (www.newyorker.com)
Brainstorming Potential Names for My New Superyacht - “Excellent Investment”? “Impulse Buy”? “Whatever the Opposite of Landlocked Is”? (www.newyorker.com)
More Latino Americans Are Losing Their Religion - And, according to a new study, even those who aren’t are defying convention and stereotypes. (www.newyorker.com)
“Succession,” Season 4 Finale, Reviewed: The Roy Kids Shit the Deathbed - In the finale, we see a brief moment of genuine connection between the siblings. But this is Jesse Armstrong’s “Succession,” and nothing gold can stay. (www.newyorker.com)
Dogs Are a Girl’s Best Friend - Michael Bloomberg’s daughter Georgina (along with Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara) headlines the movement to save hundreds of thousands of New York pets from euthanasia. (www.newyorker.com)
Twenty-Dollar Lemonade, but Is It Art? - On an art-fair rooftop, New York grade schoolers peddle refreshments to benefit art education in public schools. (www.newyorker.com)
Gloria Gaynor, Still Surviving in New Jersey - As a bio-pic premières at the Tribeca Film Festival, the singer talks about how “the song” was almost a B-side, and the joys of cooking with cream-of-mushroom soup. (www.newyorker.com)
Kim Petras Wants to Be a Superstar - The singer has dreamed of pop ubiquity since she was a teen-ager. After a No. 1 hit, “Unholy,” she is under pressure to do it again. (www.newyorker.com)
Original Garbage-Can Art Found in Sanitation Department Archive! - The National Lampoon artist Rick Meyerowitz hadn’t seen the drawing he did for the city’s first recycling campaign—his most ubiquitous art work—since 1986. (www.newyorker.com)
Christine and the Queens’ Restless Self-Inventions - “Paranoïa, Angels, True Love” is the latest album from an artist unafraid to become someone new. (www.newyorker.com)
Gustavo Dudamel’s Mahler Misfire - At the New York Philharmonic, the celebrity conductor gave a curiously inert reading of the Ninth Symphony. (www.newyorker.com)
The Case For and Against Ed Sheeran - The pop singer’s trial for copyright infringement of Marvin Gaye and Ed Townsend’s “Let’s Get It On” highlights how hard it is to draw the property lines of pop. (www.newyorker.com)
“Do You Love Me?,” by Hila Blum - “We are the parents of a missing person, but the kind no one around us can understand, not even us.” (www.newyorker.com)
Lesser-Known Postpartum Mood Disorders - Shouts & Murmurs by Jena Friedman: Pre-weaning depression is depression associated with learning that “post-weaning depression” is a real thing. (Google it!) (www.newyorker.com)
“What Is the Smell of a Circle?,” by Paisley Rekdal - Poetry by Paisley Rekdal: “How much more pain / were we willing to endure to prove / we loved each other?” (www.newyorker.com)
The Mail - Letters respond to Eyal Press’s article about Planned Parenthood and J. R. Moehringer’s essay about being Prince Harry’s ghostwriter. (www.newyorker.com)
How to Hire a Pop Star for Your Private Party - For the very rich, even the world’s biggest performers—Beyoncé, Drake, Jennifer Lopez, Andrea Bocelli—are available, at a price. (www.newyorker.com)
The Secret Sound of Stax - The rediscovery of demos performed by the songwriters of the legendary Memphis recording studio reveals a hidden history of soul. (www.newyorker.com)
E. Jean Carroll and Roberta Kaplan on Defamatory Trump - The writer, who was sexually abused and defamed by Donald Trump, fights back against his continued statements, asking for more damages. But can anything stop Trump’s campaign to malign her? (www.newyorker.com)
Fashion and Politics in Barkley L. Hendricks’s Pictures - An artist of wide-ranging interests, he captured urban street style, American symbols, and musical greats—all with a unique passion. (www.newyorker.com)
Tom Hanks on the Rewards and “Vicious Reality” of Making Movies - The actor and first-time novelist discusses his new book, shooting the park-bench scenes in “Forrest Gump,” and the impossibility of predicting how a film will turn out. (www.newyorker.com)
Kevin McCarthy’s Thoughts on Other Ceilings - Likes: Glass ceilings, the Oval Office ceiling, his frat house’s ceiling. Dislikes: Library ceilings, the student-loan-debt ceiling, any high ceiling. (www.newyorker.com)
A New Way to Hear Some Revelatory Charlie Parker Bootlegs - “Bird in L.A.,” now available on streaming, features Parker’s audacious artistry in a wide range of live settings. (www.newyorker.com)
An A.I.-Generated Film Depicts Human Loneliness, in “Thank You for Not Answering” - The artist Paul Trillo thinks of the A.I. filmmaking tools he used as “co-directing” the evocative short. (www.newyorker.com)
E. Jean Carroll on Defamatory Trump, and Rob Marshall on “The Little Mermaid” - Carroll and her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, on their next move against Donald Trump’s campaign of defamation. Plus, the director of Disney’s new film on bringing the mermaid to life. (www.newyorker.com)
Emma Cline’s Vacay-Bummer Novel - “The Guest” seems to be another satire of the rich. But Cline’s real target is the reader’s expectations. (www.newyorker.com)
What Can Ron DeSantis Do Now? - It isn’t that the Florida governor is charmless—or it’s not only that. It’s that his career has been spent on a charmlessness offensive. (www.newyorker.com)
GloRilla Sets Out to Conquer Summer - The Memphis rapper is part of Hot 97’s Summer Jam, which also features Cardi B, Ice Spice, Coi Leray, and Lola Brooke. (www.newyorker.com)
E. Jean Carroll Discusses Trump’s Comeuppance - Since losing a civil case to the journalist, who accused him of sexual abuse and defamation, Trump has doubled down on his attacks. (www.newyorker.com)
Fashion Photography with a Pistol and a Pulse - Steven Klein’s images teetered between the seductive and the sadistic. For most publications today, they are history too rude to be repeated. (www.newyorker.com)
Superiority Burger Keeps a Tight Focus - Brooks Headley’s East Village restaurant, relocated to a relatively sprawling space, builds on his original vegetarian menu with powerful, creative additions. (www.newyorker.com)
Have You Noticed That “Succession” Is Like Shakespeare? - You can really tell that the writers of “Succession” are, if not Shakespeare themselves, at least heavily influenced by him. (www.newyorker.com)
“The Little Mermaid” Has a Stellar Lead Performance and Something of an Inner Life - The new film is less charming but more substantial than the 1989 original. (www.newyorker.com)
How Andy Warhol Turned the Supreme Court Justices Into Art Critics - Justice Elena Kagan’s dissent reads as strenuously as a vintage piece by, say, Clement Greenberg, slamming Harold Rosenberg. (www.newyorker.com)
Twitter Investigation Reveals Keyboard Was Clogged with Chocolate Pudding - “We’re not sure how, but chocolate pudding seems to have seeped into one of the keyboards,” an insider on the matter said. “It’s really gross.” (www.newyorker.com)
David Choe’s Fans Want to Follow Him to a World Beyond Conformity - He cultivated an online community dedicated to surrendering control. He’s the artist; they’re his art. (www.newyorker.com)
Farewell, Kendall Roy - In a role that forms the emotional center of “Succession,” the actor Jeremy Strong never lost sight of Kendall’s undertow of pain. (www.newyorker.com)
Profiling the Profile Writer Profiling Me - My counterpart’s simply dull, the type that only shines near others’ light. A creative tapeworm. (www.newyorker.com)
How Do You Interview Donald Trump? - Jelani Cobb and Steve Coll, the current and past deans of the Columbia Journalism School, discuss the challenges that reporters face in covering the former President’s 2024 campaign. (www.newyorker.com)
Here at the War-Poison Factory, We Want to Run a Progressive Workplace - Please, sleep easy knowing that you’re making war poison for a company that cares. (www.newyorker.com)
DeSantis Hopes to Seem Like Normal Person by Appearing Next to Elon Musk - According to an aide, the campaign considered a shortlist of other foils, including Mickey Rourke, Dennis Rodman, and Ginni Thomas. (www.newyorker.com)
Martin Amis, Remembered by Writers - New Yorker writers and contributors reflect on Amis’s life and on their experience of reading his work. (www.newyorker.com)
The Elephant in the Room: An Oral History - Recalling the neighborhood party, Kyle said, “We love Barbara. Carl’s Carl. He was drunk. As usual. What wasn’t usual was the elephant. That was incredibly weird.” (www.newyorker.com)
A New York Locksmith’s Hard-Earned Wisdom in “Keys to the City” - Ian Moubayed’s film follows a tradesman who is about to retire, as he passes on his knowledge about locks and customer service to his younger colleague. (www.newyorker.com)
The Mysticism of Paul Simon - On “Seven Psalms,” the artist continues his spiritual seeking, imagining a divine presence only to interrogate its borders. (www.newyorker.com)
Can You Love the Art and Hate the Monster? - In “Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma,” Claire Dederer attempts the impossible task of disentangling herself from the figures whose work has made her who she is. (www.newyorker.com)
The Discovery of a Forgotten and Banned Nuremberg Film - “Filmmakers for the Prosecution” tells the story of how a scion of Hollywood made a documentary film about the Nazi atrocities that was banned by the U.S. Army. (www.newyorker.com)
Paul Schrader’s “Master Gardener” Is a Movie Divided Against Itself - It may appear to be a political drama or a redemption arc, but it’s really an erotic thriller. (www.newyorker.com)
Yayoi Kusama Turned Art Into a Selfie - She’s been called the world’s most popular artist, but her work is a mere reflection of her brand. (www.newyorker.com)
What Is Biden’s Endgame in the Debt-Ceiling Standoff? - The Administration is examining all its options to avoid a technical default should there be no agreement by the “X-Date.” (www.newyorker.com)
Battle Rap’s Unwoke Representation Politics - Even if the point of battle rap is trading increasingly offensive insults, the whole thing functions on a certain system of trust. (www.newyorker.com)
How to Find a Missing Person with Dementia - Searching for people with cognitive disabilities presents special challenges. Can we solve them? (www.newyorker.com)
DeSantis Caught Sneaking Into Matinée of “Little Mermaid” - “Don’t do it, Ariel!” Florida’s governor was heard bellowing in the back row. (www.newyorker.com)
A History of Incarceration by Women Who Have Lived Through It - The members of the Indiana Women’s Prison History Project are able to scrutinize official records not only for what they reveal but also for what they omit. (www.newyorker.com)
Why the Pro-Life Movement Can’t Quit Trump - The former President is less committed than the other 2024 G.O.P. front-runners on the subject of abortion. Shouldn’t advocates of tighter restrictions be jumping ship? (www.newyorker.com)
What Washington Doesn’t Understand about China - With President Biden shuttling from the G-7 summit in Japan to debt-limit negotiations in Washington, our political roundtable looks at the state of U.S.-China relations. (www.newyorker.com)
“The Soccer Balls of Mr. Kurz,” by Michele Mari - “For Bragonzi, the only beautiful thing in the sad life of the boarding school in Quarto dei Mille was the soccer matches.” (www.newyorker.com)
Two Weeks at the Front in Ukraine - In the trenches in the Donbas, infantrymen face unrelenting horrors, from missiles to grenades to helicopter fire. (www.newyorker.com)
Princeton’s Hidden Chaplains - Celebrating the unwitting ministry of the workaday heroes who brighten the days of overanxious Ivy Leaguers. (www.newyorker.com)
Michele Mari on the Anguish of Childhood - The author discusses “The Soccer Balls of Mr. Kurz,” his story from the latest issue of the magazine. (www.newyorker.com)
What We Owe Our Trees - Forests fed us, housed us, and made our way of life possible. But they can’t save us if we can’t save them. (www.newyorker.com)
The Graceful Rebellions of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - The poet Patrick Mackie hears Mozart’s music as impropriety, as ambition—and even as revenge. (www.newyorker.com)
From an Amazon Warehouse to the Whitney - Chris Smalls, the unlikely face of the American labor movement, takes in Josh Kline’s museum exhibition, a techno-dystopian exploration of work and class. (www.newyorker.com)
Brooklyn’s New Super Team Moves In - The Liberty’s new stars, Jonquel Jones, Breanna Stewart, and Courtney Vandersloot, explain the secret to how they joined forces: lots of group-chat emojis. (www.newyorker.com)
Stephen Satterfield Puts Black Cuisine at the Center of U.S. History - The host of Netflix’s “High on the Hog” draws seductive stories from a bittersweet legacy. (www.newyorker.com)
The Mail - Letters respond to Carina Chocano’s piece about Duolingo, Alex Abramovich’s Profile of Paul Schrader, and Edward Koren’s Sketchbook. (www.newyorker.com)
Participation Trophy - Shouts & Murmurs by Simon Rich: The day you got me, I gazed at you from my gold-colored plastic podium as you pumped your fists in triumph. Then you read the engraved words: “If you had fun, you won.” (www.newyorker.com)
The Tortured Bond of Alice Sebold and the Man Wrongfully Convicted of Her Rape - Anthony Broadwater spent sixteen years in prison and twenty-two more as a registered sex offender. For him and for the author of “The Lovely Bones,” justice is a difficult dream. (www.newyorker.com)
“High Romance,” by Diane Seuss - Poetry by Diane Seuss: “And then Keats’s ghost found / that he could no longer love / Fanny Brawne.” (www.newyorker.com)
Ed Templeton’s Unsparing Photographic Diary of Skateboarding Life - Templeton’s images, taken between 1995 and 2012, capture the intimacy and aimlessness of being on tour. (www.newyorker.com)
The History of Nepo Babies is the History of Humanity - From ancient dynasties to modern fortunes, family has long defined our past, present, and future. (www.newyorker.com)
“On Your Departure to California,” by Megan Fernandes - Poetry by Megan Fernandes: “Prayer for you out west. / Where night falls only after mine.” (www.newyorker.com)
Should Actors Be Paid for Auditions? - The streaming era has placed new burdens on actors to tape themselves, and an oft-forgotten clause in the SAG contract states that actors should be compensated for this work. (www.newyorker.com)
Tinx Explains Why We’re Dating All Wrong - The influencer Christina Najjar, a.k.a. Tinx, discusses modern relationship etiquette and her new book, “The Shift.” (www.newyorker.com)
Guns, Trump, and the G.O.P. - The right’s push to loosen restrictions is resulting in a judicial and legislative free-for-all that is intersecting, disastrously, with the 2024 Presidential race. (www.newyorker.com)
Martin Amis’s Comic Music - The great British novelist, who has died at seventy-three, had a true literary vitality that was high-spirited and farcical. (www.newyorker.com)
The Far-Seeing Faith of Tim Keller - The pastor created a new blueprint for Christian thought, showing how traditional doctrine could address the crisis of modern life. (www.newyorker.com)
Title 42 Is Gone, But What Are Asylum Seekers Supposed to Do Now? - It’s hard to imagine an area of federal policymaking more vexed than immigration, generally, and asylum, specifically. (www.newyorker.com)
Undergraduate Excuses, Used in Other Contexts - Owing to the death of my boyfriend’s grandfather—whom I loved dearly—I will not be able to finish filling your cavity. (www.newyorker.com)
Congress Really Wants to Regulate A.I., But No One Seems to Know How - Yet another hearing—this one with OpenAI’s Sam Altman—has come after a new technology with the possibility to fundamentally alter our lives is already in circulation. (www.newyorker.com)
Behind the Scenes with Tom Hanks - The actor kicks off the book tour for his début novel, “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece,” onstage with David Remnick. Plus, Jill Lepore on gardening and history. (www.newyorker.com)
An Intimate, Lived-In Début Feature from Cambodia - Kavich Neang’s “White Building” dramatizes private lives and public conflicts in contemporary Phnom Penh. (www.newyorker.com)
“You Hurt My Feelings” and “Master Gardener,” Reviewed - Nicole Holofcener has made a career sharply observing an oversensitive subset of society, but her new film goes surprisingly easy on its troupe of fools. (www.newyorker.com)
A Loner’s Misadventures, in “The Diamond” - In Vedran Rupic’s short film, a solitary man looks for love, and friendship, in all the wrong ways. (www.newyorker.com)
Why the New Kesha Doesn’t Miss the Old Kesha - At a friend’s art show, the pop singer revealed the recipe for her new album, “Gag Order”: holing up in Hawaii, weepy meditation sessions, and howling at the moon. (www.newyorker.com)
The Open-World Genius of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - Unlike other blockbuster games, Tears of the Kingdom allows for improvisation, tinkering, and fantastic feats of engineering. (www.newyorker.com)
The Debt-Ceiling Fight’s Collateral Damage - Last week, dozens of members of ADAPT, the disability-rights group, forced their way into Kevin McCarthy’s office to protest his proposed cuts to the social safety net. (www.newyorker.com)
New TV Shows Featuring Cannibalism - A plane crash strands a high-school girls’ soccer/lacrosse/cheerleading/chess/wilderness-survival team in the woods. (www.newyorker.com)
Intensely Flavorful Soups, at Noona Noodles - In Koreatown, a mother-daughter team turns out surprising varieties of ramen, jjam bbong packed with spicy seafood, saucy dumplings, and naengmyeon, served ice-cold. (www.newyorker.com)
Pickleball for All, in Central Park - At CityPickle, in Wollman Rink, fourteen newly installed pickleball courts are open daily through the summer. (www.newyorker.com)
Floridians Demand to Know Where Disney Is Going so They Can Come With - Across the state, residents indicated a desperate desire to join Disney in its departure. (www.newyorker.com)
The Birth of the Personal Computer - A new history of the Apple II charts how computers became unavoidable fixtures of our daily lives. (www.newyorker.com)
Why Erdoğan Prevailed in a Battle of Competing Turkish Nationalisms - As the country heads to a Presidential runoff, will the aftermath of a devastating earthquake hold more sway than old narratives of grievance? (www.newyorker.com)
Daily Cartoon: Thursday, May 18th - “My first thought was to reach across the aisle and seek to heal our wounds—but then I had a second thought.” (www.newyorker.com)
The Making of an Opera: “Die Zauberflöte” (“The Magic Flute”) at the Met - Behind the scenes, the creative team prepares for opening night. (www.newyorker.com)
Jia Tolentino and Stephania Taladrid on a Year Without Roe v. Wade - The staff writers return to The Political Scene to discuss the state of abortion rights and what has changed since the Dobbs decision. (www.newyorker.com)
The Fight for the Soul of a School Board - In a small Missouri town, a campaign to remove literature from the high-school library forced members of the community to reckon with the meaning of “parents’ rights.” (www.newyorker.com)
Can a Novel Capture the Power of Money? - In “Trust,” Hernan Diaz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, fiction and finance are bedfellows, constantly toying with a reader’s investment. (www.newyorker.com)
The Black Families Seeking Reparations in California’s Gold Country - Descendants of enslaved people want land seized by the state returned and recognition of the gold rush’s rich, and largely ignored, Black history. (www.newyorker.com)
Kate Baer Reads Ellen Bass - The poet joins Kevin Young to read and discuss “The Morning After,” by Ellen Bass, and her own poem “Mixup.” (www.newyorker.com)
The Party Is Cancelled - Inside a monthly New York City hangout, where fired university professors and controversial TikTokers get together to have discussions they feel they can’t have anywhere else. (www.newyorker.com)
Sending Parcels and Seeking Connection in “1 Kilo - 3 Euros” - For the Georgian migrants in Ani Mrelashvili’s short documentary, shipping packages home is a sacred activity. (www.newyorker.com)
The Time Has Come for Hollywood C.E.O.s to Strike - Day One: All chief executives have changed their e-mail auto-responses from “I am vacationing in Moldova and will be slow to respond” to “I am vacationing in Moldova and also I’m on strike.” (www.newyorker.com)
A Few Thoughts on Quentin Tarantino’s Plan to Retire - The director has said that his tenth film will be his last. What does this mean for his cinematic legacy? (www.newyorker.com)
An Alluring History of Photographic Blur - An exhibit at Photo Elysée in Switzerland shows how a beginner’s mistake can also be a form of creative intention. (www.newyorker.com)
Please, A.I., Don’t Take Our Jobs. Take Our Tasks - We’d be way more chill about the whole A.I.-development stuff if we knew that the robots had “assistant energy.” (www.newyorker.com)
Don’t Believe Donald Trump: A Failure to Raise the Debt Ceiling Would Be Disastrous - The ex-President’s intervention has made a fraught situation even more complicated. (www.newyorker.com)
Florida Teacher Arrested for Showing Disney Movie Featuring Boy Character with Girl’s Name - The teacher claimed that she thought it was “O.K.” to show the incendiary film because the character in question was a deer. (www.newyorker.com)
New Movements in Contemporary Architecture - TikTok filterism, renovating Frank Gehry buildings to make them even wigglier, and more. (www.newyorker.com)
Daily Cartoon: Monday, May 15th - “Who do we resent more? The friends who got married this weekend or the friends who ran a marathon this weekend?” (www.newyorker.com)
The Vanishing Acts of Vladimir Putin - One of the seeming paradoxes of the Russian President is the degree to which he is at once a unitary micromanager and an absent, aloof, and often indecisive leader. (www.newyorker.com)
Have State Legislatures Gone Rogue? - Two Black legislators are expelled, then a trans lawmaker is censured. The political scientist Jacob Grumbach explains why state legislatures are making anti-democratic moves. (www.newyorker.com)
How a Disaster Expert Prepares for the Worst - Lucy Easthope, who has worked on major emergencies since 9/11, says that small interventions can make a significant difference. (www.newyorker.com)
A Parting Glass for the Ritz’s Norman Bukofzer - One of the late, great barman’s best customers, Liam Neeson, presided from a “fecking” sickbed upstairs as drinkers toasted the guy who’d served Jodie Foster, Ralph Fiennes, Bono, Joe Torre, and Bette Davis. (www.newyorker.com)
“To Astraeus,” by Cynthia Zarin - Poetry by Cynthia Zarin: “Pale blue, the split days pure radium, / bittersweet lace in the snow-white field.” (www.newyorker.com)
How Philipp Plein Became the King of Low-Brow High Fashion - The maximalist designer has positioned himself as an underdog hero of the common man, who is successful despite the falsity and the snobbery of the élites. (www.newyorker.com)
“Long Island,” by Nicole Krauss - “The question of what would be enough to keep us safe—from terrorists, neighbors, history—became less and less clear.” (www.newyorker.com)
How to Quit Cars - They crowd streets, belch carbon, bifurcate communities, and destroy the urban fabric. Will we ever overcome our addiction? (www.newyorker.com)
“The MRI,” by Paul Muldoon - Poetry by Paul Muldoon: “Again and again, we’ll put our shoulder / to the wheel / on which we’re broken.” (www.newyorker.com)
Carole King on Capitol Hill - The singer and self-described “Jewish girl from New York” traipsed around taking selfies with legislators, in a quest to save the Rockies from loggers. (www.newyorker.com)
“Queen Charlotte” Has Shonda Rhimes All Over It - The dialogue of the “Bridgerton” prequel, on Netflix, recalls “Scandal” ’s snippy banter and florid monologues, as well as that series’ obsession with optics. (www.newyorker.com)
A Pajama Party to Pep Up Your Small Talk - Ashley Merrill and Kate MacArthur came up with a card game called the Deep, a series of conversational prompts designed to make awkward silences obsolete. (www.newyorker.com)
Briefly Noted Book Reviews - “In the Orchard,” “A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness,” “Go Back and Get It,” and “We the Scientists.” (www.newyorker.com)
Translation: My Multilingual Life - Shouts & Murmurs by Ian Frazier: Linguists call it Demotic Ay-speak, but to me it will always be Pig Latin. (www.newyorker.com)
The Mail - Letters respond to Antonia Hitchens’s article about Taco Bell’s food-innovation staff and Emily Witt’s piece about startups working to extend female fertility. (www.newyorker.com)
Henry Koperski Isn’t Joking Anymore - An in-demand accompanist to comedians (Matteo Lane, Catherine Cohen, Matt Rogers), he now also performs solo, as his alter ego, Henki Skidu, with a magic rock around his neck. (www.newyorker.com)
The Real Scandal Surrounding Clarence Thomas’s Gifts - Supreme Court Justices, alone in our system, are not truly regulated by anyone other than themselves. (www.newyorker.com)
Remembering My Hijacking - As children, my sister and I were held hostage for six days in the desert. Why couldn’t I recall what happened? (www.newyorker.com)
Joan Baez Is Still Doing Beautiful, Cool Stuff - At eighty-two, the folk singer has a new book of drawings and sleeps on a mattress in a tree. (www.newyorker.com)
The Permanent-Scandal Phase of American Politics - Our political roundtable looks at a week of legal setbacks and ethics debates involving Representative George Santos, former President Donald Trump, and the Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. (www.newyorker.com)
If Corporations, Rather Than the Corporatized U.S. Health-Care System, Handled Childbirth - Netflix: Hours into labor, the doctor pauses to ask, “Are you still pushing?” (www.newyorker.com)
W.G.A. Strike: Why Your Favorite Shows Could Go Dark - Michael Schulman talks with Laura Jacqmin, a veteran TV writer and a Writers Guild strike captain. Plus, the comedian and essayist Samantha Irby in conversation with Doreen St. Félix. (www.newyorker.com)
“BlackBerry,” Like the BlackBerry, Never Reaches Its Potential - The business drama has documentary-like enticements but remains a stranger to its characters. (www.newyorker.com)
A Jewish Immigrant Novelist’s Radical Vision for Working Women - The fiction of Anzia Yezierska captures the perennial tension between personal ambition and the obligations of care. (www.newyorker.com)
What Bluesky Tells Us About the Future of Social Media - The new platform aims to be a decentralized alternative to Twitter. The vibe there is mostly like that of a Portland coffee shop. (www.newyorker.com)
The L.A. Phenom Lauren Halsey, at the Met - The artist’s triumphant installation, on the museum’s roof, evokes a majestic reunion of the living and the ancestral. (www.newyorker.com)
Summer Art Preview - Ebony G. Patterson at the New York Botanical Garden, Sheila Pepe in Madison Square Park, Hannah Gadsby confronts Picasso at the Brooklyn Museum, and more. (www.newyorker.com)
Summer Contemporary-Music Preview - Mononymous superstars take over local stages, the Moldy Peaches return, John Cale and Horsegirl play free shows, and more. (www.newyorker.com)
Summer Classical-Music Preview - Louis Langrée’s valedictory season with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, thirty feet off the ground at the Shed’s Sonic Sphere, Death of Classical in Green-Wood Cemetery, and more. (www.newyorker.com)
The Superbloom Is a Glimpse of California’s Past - This year’s rains reversed, temporarily, more than a decade of catastrophic drought. Some of the seeds that caused the bloom have lain dormant for years. (www.newyorker.com)
The Diary of a Rikers Island Library Worker - Every week for a year, I pushed a cart of books through the largest jail complex in New York City. (www.newyorker.com)
Fantastic Fast Food, West African Style, in Brooklyn - The Crown Heights takeout counters Akara House and Brooklyn Suya and Bed-Stuy’s Ginjan Café offer an astonishing array of food, including bean fritters and suya. (www.newyorker.com)
Summer Movies Preview - Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City,” Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” Carlos Saldanha’s “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” and more. (www.newyorker.com)
Summer Theatre Preview - David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s “Here Lies Love” on Broadway, Ato Blankson-Wood’s “Hamlet” in the Park, Robert Icke’s “The Doctor,” and more. (www.newyorker.com)
Summer Dance Preview - Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City, Christopher Wheeldon’s “Like Water for Chocolate” for A.B.T., Mark Morris’s Burt Bacharach tribute, and more. (www.newyorker.com)
The Anonymous Postcard That Inspired a French Best-Seller - Anne Berest’s “The Postcard” reads like a detective story, uncovering her Jewish family’s experiences during the Second World War. (www.newyorker.com)
Don’t Say You Haven’t Been Warned About Trump and 2024 - CNN’s awful town hall with the former President heralds a disastrous election year to come. (www.newyorker.com)