A Musical for—and About—Grammar Sticklers - “The Angry Grammarian” asks whether two lovebirds can overcome differing opinions on the Oxford comma. (www.newyorker.com)
Daily Cartoon: Monday, March 18th - “Sigh. . . . That was a relaxing weekend, but now it’s time to dive back into royal conspiracy theories.” (www.newyorker.com)
How Julien’s Auctions Leads the Booming Market in Celebrity Memorabilia - As the art market cools, Julien’s Auctions earns millions selling celebrity ephemera—and used its connections to help Kim Kardashian borrow Marilyn Monroe’s J.F.K.-birthday dress. (www.newyorker.com)
Gustav Klimt at the Neue Galerie, Reviewed - The artist can still dazzle, but his achievements sometimes come at the cost of passion or purpose. (www.newyorker.com)
“Untitled,” by Nasser Rabah (translated, from the Arabic, by Emna Zghal, Khaled al-Hilli, and Ammiel Alcalay) - “And a day goes by, and tanks, and the sky a festival of kids flying kites, and blood / flowed behind a panting car.” (www.newyorker.com)
An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children - Jamaica Kincaid’s alphabet of the colonized world, with illustrations by Kara Walker. (www.newyorker.com)
The Bodega as Chaotic Good, the Salad Joint as Neutral Evil - Christine Mi imagines a Dungeons & Dragons-style alignment system for New York storefronts. (www.newyorker.com)
“3 Body Problem” Is a Rare Species of Sci-Fi Epic - The Netflix adaptation of Liu Cixin’s trilogy mixes heady theoretical questions with genuine spectacle and heart. (www.newyorker.com)
How Candida Royalle Set Out to Reinvent Porn - As a feminist in the adult-film industry, she believed the answer wasn’t banning porn; it was better porn. (www.newyorker.com)
The Crime Rings Stealing Everything from Purses to Power Tools - In Los Angeles, a task force of detectives is battling organized retail theft, in which boosted goods often end up for sale online—or commingled on store shelves with legitimate items. (www.newyorker.com)
Judith Butler on the Global Backlash to L.G.B.T.Q. Rights - The philosopher popularized new ideas about gender—and has been burned in effigy for it. They talk with David Remnick about their new book, “Who’s Afraid of Gender?” (www.newyorker.com)
How Quinta Brunson Hacked the Sitcom with “Abbott Elementary” - With “Abbott Elementary,” the comedian and writer found fresh humor and mass appeal in a world she knew well. (www.newyorker.com)
Why New York Restaurants Are Going Members-Only - Ultra-exclusive places, like Rao’s and the Polo Bar, once seemed like rarities in the city’s dining scene. Now clubbiness is becoming a norm. (www.newyorker.com)
Ian Munsick Puts the Western Back in Country - He brought his cowboy hat and ranch experience to Nashville, where he sings about the Wyoming life he left behind. (www.newyorker.com)
Kafta as a Tool for Palestinian Diplomacy - The cookbook writer Reem Kassis hosts a dinner party for Palestinian college students and ponders her weakening faith in food as a unifier. (www.newyorker.com)
“Edward Hopper (Yellow and Red),” by W. S. Di Piero - “The windows inflect an ethic of the watched, / the overseen, the secretive.” (www.newyorker.com)
A Matisse By the Tool Drawer - Phyllis Hattis, who lived with the late MOMA curator William Rubin in art-crammed adjoining apartments (his was rent-controlled), gives a tour, hammer in hand. (www.newyorker.com)
How Foreign Policy Became a Campaign Issue for 2024 - This year, looking at Gaza and Ukraine, what happens in the rest of the world seems to matter a bit more than usual to Americans. (www.newyorker.com)
Kelly Link Is Committed to the Fantastic - The MacArthur-winning author on the worthwhile frivolity of the fantasy genre, how magic is and is not like a credit card, and why she hates to write but does it anyway. (www.newyorker.com)
Restaurant Review: Café Carmellini Is Fine Dining That Knows a Good Time - Andrew Carmellini’s latest venture is a serious, sophisticated restaurant, with white linens on the tables and bow-tied service captains, but it never sacrifices a sense of fun. (www.newyorker.com)
What Do the Polls Really Mean for Joe Biden? - With nearly eight months to go before the election, recent polling data shouldn’t be taken as gospel, but it illustrates the electoral challenge facing the President. (www.newyorker.com)
How Gaza, Ukraine, and TikTok Are Influencing the Election - “Donald Trump’s vision, or lack of vision, of what the United States can be in the world is a risk of a kind we really haven’t had in any of our lifetimes,” Evan Osnos says. (www.newyorker.com)
Has Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine Improved His Standing in Russia? - As Russians go to the polls, the economy is booming and the public feels hopeful about the future. But the politics of Putinism still depend on the absence of any means to challenge it. (www.newyorker.com)
Why Is the Sea So Hot? - A startling rise in sea-surface temperatures suggests that we may not understand how fast the climate is changing. (www.newyorker.com)
Judith Butler Can’t “Take Credit or Blame” for Gender Furor - The philosopher popularized new ideas about gender—and has been burned in effigy for it. They talk with David Remnick about “Who’s Afraid of Gender?” Plus, a little March Madness. (www.newyorker.com)
Fani Willis Survives the Effort to Disqualify Her - A judge ruled that the Fulton County D.A. can stay on the case against Trump, as long as her special prosecutor steps aside, but noted that “an odor of mendacity remains.” (www.newyorker.com)
Daily Cartoon: Friday, March 15th - “Et tu, Brute? Et tu, Sam? Et tu, Zink of the Zinky-Dink Clan? Et tu, Nip-Nip and Nip-Nun? Et tu, et tu, everyone!” (www.newyorker.com)
Mike Johnson, the First Proudly Trumpian Speaker - Though he has adopted a “nerd constitutional-law guy” persona, he is in lockstep with the law-flouting former President. (www.newyorker.com)
Recalling Meryl Streep’s “Half-Assed Genuflection” - Sister Margaret McEntee inspired the play “Doubt,” by her former pupil John Patrick Shanley. Her fellow Sisters of Charity went to see the Broadway revival. (www.newyorker.com)
An Animal-Rights Activist and the Problem of Political Despair - Has the increasing isolation of modern life made us less willing to make sacrifices for a greater good? (www.newyorker.com)
I Listened to Trump’s Rambling, Unhinged, Vituperative Georgia Rally—and So Should You - The ex-President is building a whole new edifice of lies for 2024. (www.newyorker.com)
Why Biden’s Floating Pier Is Unlikely To Meet Gaza’s Needs - A veteran humanitarian on what it will take to feed civilians in the region. (www.newyorker.com)
The Kate Middleton Photo That Was Too Good to Be True - A doctored image of the Princess of Wales and her children has become the most captivating episode of her entire public career. (www.newyorker.com)
Where One Tax Dollar Actually Goes - “Infrastructure” ($0.05): We’re unclear on the significance of the quotation marks, but we can all agree that it’s high time the U.S. railway system caught up to the twentieth century. (www.newyorker.com)
Alan Cumming Wants Us All to Let Go - The actor, author, cabaret performer, and host of the hit reality series “The Traitors” says, “I think American people, especially, are slightly ashamed of abandon.” (www.newyorker.com)
The New Coming-of-Age Story - Vinson Cunningham discusses his début novel, “Great Expectations,” a bildungsroman that captures a particular moment in American life—and that offers some clues about where the genre is heading. (www.newyorker.com)
What Biden’s Budget Means for His Reëlection Battle with Trump - The staff writer John Cassidy discusses the evolution of “Bidenomics” and why the President’s successes don’t seem to be resonating with voters. (www.newyorker.com)
“Eternal Sunshine,” Reviewed: Ariana Grande Takes Romantic Inventory - The pop star’s latest album charts the longing that accompanies the end of a relationship, but she also can’t resist playing the role of plucky provocateur. (www.newyorker.com)
Are Gangs About to Take Over Haiti? - The nation remains in chaos after the unelected Prime Minister said that he would step down, as violence and famine threaten the population. (www.newyorker.com)
A Teen-Ager’s Quest to Manage His O.C.D. in “Lost in My Mind” - In Charles Frank’s short film, a young man offers a candid look at life with O.C.D. and his experiences with exposure therapy. (www.newyorker.com)
The Problem with Defining Antisemitism - Kenneth Stern helped write a definition now endorsed by more than forty countries. Why does he believe it’s causing harm? (www.newyorker.com)
“Martyr!” Plays Its Subject for Laughs but Is Also Deadly Serious - In his first novel, the Iranian American poet Kaveh Akbar asks whether our pain matters, and to whom, and how it might be made to matter more. (www.newyorker.com)
Vinson Cunningham on His New Book, “Great Expectations” - The journalist’s autobiographical novel reflects his time working on Barack Obama’s campaign, and in his White House. Has the former President lived up to his expectations? (www.newyorker.com)
Medieval Oxford’s Murder Problem - The university town used to have a murder rate roughly equal to that of present-day New Orleans. What can it tell us about the nature of violence today? (www.newyorker.com)
An Explicitly Redistributive Budget for an Election Year - Joe Biden wants to expand the social safety net and reduce the deficit by raising taxes on the top two per cent and particularly the top 0.01 per cent. (www.newyorker.com)
Daily Cartoon: Tuesday, March 12th - “According to our latest polls, voters trust me seven per cent more than either of the leading candidates.” (www.newyorker.com)
Color Theory, Explained - If you don’t know much about color, it’s a good idea to just pick the second least expensive color on the menu. (www.newyorker.com)
America’s Last Top Models - For decades, U.S. inventors sent in models with their patent applications—gizmos that reveal a secret history of unmet needs and relentless innovation. (www.newyorker.com)
An Oscar-Night Diary: The Kenergy Was Palpable - “Barbie” received only one award, but the ceremony—and even the after-parties—brimmed with a simple ebullience. (www.newyorker.com)
What a Top U.N. Official Sees on His Weekly Trips to Gaza - James McGoldrick describes the challenges of delivering aid during Israel’s bombardment. (www.newyorker.com)
The Oscars Are More Barbie Than They’ll Admit - The show wasn’t bad, but a shortsighted Academy was hard on this year’s best movies. (www.newyorker.com)
At the “Oppenheimer” Oscars, Hollywood Went in Search of Lost Time - After the pandemic, the strikes, and years of small-scale pictures in the spotlight, the triumph of a brainy blockbuster seemed like a nod to a bygone heyday. (www.newyorker.com)
“Men’s Sexual-Trauma Support Group,” by José Antonio Rodríguez - “I think I’ve gone through life / Observing it rather than living it.” (www.newyorker.com)
Among the A.I. Doomsayers - Some people think machine intelligence will transform humanity for the better. Others fear it may destroy us. Who will decide our fate? (www.newyorker.com)
Libertarians and Socialists and Jill Stein—Oh, My! - At a debate between five third-party candidates in Manhattan, the message was “Unrig the system.” (www.newyorker.com)
How Arnold Schoenberg Changed Hollywood - He moved to California during the Nazi era, and his music—which ranged from the lushly melodic to the rigorously atonal—caught the ears of everyone from George Gershwin to James Dean. (www.newyorker.com)
The Open-Air Prison for ISIS Supporters—and Victims - Since the Islamic State fell, tens of thousands of people—many of them children—have been herded into Al-Hol, a giant fenced-in camp in Syria, and effectively given life sentences. (www.newyorker.com)
Melanie Ann Donoghue and Wordle Wed - The bride worried, “Will people judge me for dating someone I met online, who’s only capable of communicating through letters that Times readers type onto a gridlike interface?” (www.newyorker.com)
At the Ballpark: I See London, I See France! - Fashion experts weigh in on Major League Baseball’s new inadvertently see-through uniforms, which leave nothing to the imagination. (www.newyorker.com)
For Sale: Busy Philipps’s Marriage Stuff. Yes, Used - The actor and her ex-husband, the filmmaker Marc Silverstein, host a “divorce sale” to sell their Le Creuset and her wedding veil. (www.newyorker.com)
How an Enthusiast of Soviet Socialism Fell Afoul of the Authorities - Andrei Platonov’s “Chevengur” depicts a Communist utopia, but Stalin loathed his writing, calling the author “scum.” (www.newyorker.com)
Percival Everett Can’t Say What His Novels Mean - The author of “Erasure” is renowned for his satires of genre, identity, and America. But his great target may be language itself. (www.newyorker.com)
The Hunt for John Wilkes Booth Goes On - “Manhunt,” a new television miniseries, depicts the pursuit of Lincoln’s killer. But the public appetite for tales about the chase began even as it was happening. (www.newyorker.com)
The Poodle Partying with the Kardashians and Cher - At a private party, the dog actors playing Josephine—the mascot of the new Fontainebleau resort in Las Vegas—upstaged Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. (www.newyorker.com)
John Patrick Shanley Wrestles with God and Destiny - The playwright stages boxerly confrontations in a revival of “Doubt,” starring Liev Schreiber and Amy Ryan, and in the new show “Brooklyn Laundry,” with Cecily Strong. (www.newyorker.com)
The Mail - Letters respond to Michael Ondaatje’s poem “Definition,” Jia Tolentino’s piece about weed legalization, and Claudia Roth Pierpont’s essay about books in wartime. (www.newyorker.com)
Have the Liberal Arts Gone Conservative? - The classical-education movement seeks to fundamentally reorient schooling in America. Its emphasis on morality and civics has also primed it for partisan takeover. (www.newyorker.com)
Restaurant Review: Missy Robbins’s Lowest Key Pasta Paradiso - Robbins’s chic flagship restaurant Lilia is perpetually booked. Her follow-up, Misi, is stuck in a charmless space. With her latest place, Misipasta, I feel like Goldilocks. (www.newyorker.com)
Will the Supreme Court Now Review More Constitutional Amendments? - After their ruling on a Fourteenth Amendment case, which keeps Donald Trump on the ballot, will the Justices be willing to revisit Dobbs, or Second Amendment cases? (www.newyorker.com)
Team Trump’s Merger with the R.N.C. Begins in Texas - At a Houston meeting, the Republican National Committee elected Lara Trump and Michael Whatley to lead the organization into the general election. (www.newyorker.com)
A Begrudgingly Affectionate Portrait of the American Mall - “We’re all being manipulated in the mall,” the photographer Stephen DiRado says. But his photos elicit a certain nostalgia, almost in spite of themselves. (www.newyorker.com)
At the State of the Union, Biden Came Out Swinging - “He wasn’t looking to convince anybody. What he was looking to do was to tell his own side, ‘Stop freaking out. I’m in the fight,’ ” Susan B. Glasser says. (www.newyorker.com)
In “Great Expectations,” Vinson Cunningham Watches Barack Obama’s Rise Up Close - The journalist’s autobiographical novel reflects his time working on Barack Obama’s campaign, and in his White House. Plus, Bradley Cooper’s shot at Oscar glory. (www.newyorker.com)
Iris Apfel Wore Fame Well - Apfel pursued the driving creative project of her life—getting dressed, dazzlingly—for eight decades without any promise of greater glory. How could she ever have seen it coming? (www.newyorker.com)
Daily Cartoon: Friday, March 8th - “And the award for staying up later than you should have just to see if anything gossip-worthy happened goes to . . .” (www.newyorker.com)
So Much for “Sleepy Joe”: On Biden’s Rowdy, Shouty State of the Union - The spectre of Trump’s return loomed large over the President’s unusually partisan annual address. (www.newyorker.com)
“Love Lies Bleeding” and the Perils of Genre - Crackling performances from Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian can’t quite disguise a thinness of characterization in Rose Glass’s neo-noir. (www.newyorker.com)
The Kate Middleton Conspiracy-Theory Swirl - The Princess of Wales is at home recovering from surgery. But that’s not what the Internet thinks. (www.newyorker.com)
Michael Schulman’s Oscar Predictions - Also: Kwikstep and Rokafella’s freestyle-dance party, Tierra Whack, Richard Linklater’s new documentary, and more. (www.newyorker.com)
What’s Left of Reagan Republicanism After the Demise of Nikki Haley’s Campaign? - Old-style free-market conservatism lives on at think tanks and among the G.O.P.’s donor class, but Donald Trump’s grip on the Party’s voters is viselike. (www.newyorker.com)
Why America Isn’t Using Its Leverage with Israel - Senator Chris Van Hollen on the catastrophe in Gaza, and his differences with the Biden Administration. (www.newyorker.com)
Why We Love an Office Drama - From Adelle Waldman’s novel “Help Wanted” to the sci-fi-inflected Apple TV+ show “Severance,” fictional depictions of work are getting darker, or at least stranger. What can the state of the workplace in art tell us about the workplace in life? (www.newyorker.com)
The Oscars: Who’ll Win, Who Should Win, and Who’s Overdue - More than in most years, the doctrine of dueness has dominated the 2024 awards season. (www.newyorker.com)
The Terrifying A.I. Scam That Uses Your Loved One’s Voice - A Brooklyn couple got a call from relatives who were being held ransom. Their voices—like many others these days—had been cloned. (www.newyorker.com)
The Mood at Mar-a-Lago on Super Tuesday - Benjamin Wallace-Wells on the difficult choice facing a “cynical electorate” and Antonia Hitchens on a sombre Donald Trump after a decisive victory in the Republican primaries. (www.newyorker.com)
A Novelist of Privileged Youth Finds a New Subject - In “Help Wanted,” Adelle Waldman turns her lens from literary Brooklyn to retail work. (www.newyorker.com)
Can Joe Biden Fight from Behind in a Rematch Against Donald Trump? - As the general election is set to begin, there is a new protagonist in American politics: not the man seeking to take back the White House as retribution but its current, outwardly placid occupant. (www.newyorker.com)
Daily Cartoon: Wednesday, March 6th - “Once I finish the books, I’ll watch the movies, and once I finish those I’ll laugh at the memes.” (www.newyorker.com)
Where Stars Keep Their Oscars - Anonymous Academy Award-winners sound off on where in their homes, properties, or tax shelters they store the industry’s most prestigious object. (www.newyorker.com)
What Biden Should Say About the Economy During the State of the Union - With the President’s economic approval rating standing at just forty per cent, it’s imperative for him to highlight some of his substantive achievements and talk about the future. (www.newyorker.com)
A Family Survives in Gaza, Barely - Mohamed Hwaihi and Ruba Al Kurd, both doctors, have had to balance their duty to patients and their desire to protect their children. (www.newyorker.com)
The Supreme Court Keeps Donald Trump on the Ballot - The ruling in Trump v. Anderson is a win for the former President, but it also opens up new battles. (www.newyorker.com)
In “Hometown Prison,” Richard Linklater Looks at Life on Both Sides of the Wall - The wide-ranging documentary about Huntsville, Texas, where the filmmaker grew up, evokes the city’s carceral system through interviews, archival footage, and his own reminiscences. (www.newyorker.com)
Alexei Ratmansky and Tiler Peck Bring Fine New Work to City Ballet - Ratmansky’s dance in response to the war in Ukraine is a work of harrowing interiority, and Peck’s mercurial début as a choreographer demonstrates skill and range. (www.newyorker.com)
Sleeves Gone Wild! - Beyoncé! Selena Gomez! Double-sleeve sweaters! Colleen Hill, the curator of “Statement Sleeves” at the Museum at F.I.T., explains why arm coverings got so big. (www.newyorker.com)
Joe Biden’s Last Campaign - Trailing Trump in polls and facing doubts about his age, the President voices defiant confidence in his prospects for reëlection. (www.newyorker.com)
“Hostel,” by Fiona McFarlane - All the time there was a stranger in the house with them, a girl who might have been anyone, whose name they didn’t even know. (www.newyorker.com)
John Kerry Thinks We’re at a Critical Moment on Climate Change - As he steps down from office, the first Presidential envoy on the climate says that we have made progress, but we’re not moving fast enough. (www.newyorker.com)
Scenes from My Open-ish Marriage - My wife and I have an arrangement. I mean, I think we do. We also have an arrangement about the grocery shopping and the recycling (I do both). (www.newyorker.com)
Biden Reveals His Thoughts on the 2024 Election - The staff writer Evan Osnos went to the White House for a rare, frank talk with the President about his reëlection battle. Can he persuade voters that his accomplishments outweigh his age? (www.newyorker.com)
Lucy Prebble’s Dramas of High Anxiety - In plays such as “The Effect” and TV shows such as “I Hate Suzie” and “Succession,” the writer has become an expert at getting deep inside worried characters’ heads. (www.newyorker.com)
A Conflict-Theatre Troupe Visits a Land of Strife (Columbia University) - Theater of War Productions tries to create a dialogue about Israel and Palestine through the Iliad and “The Trojan Women.” (www.newyorker.com)
Brightening the History of Harlem - Denise Murrell, in her exhibition on the Harlem Renaissance at the Met, captures the joy of her subject but not the complex humanism. (www.newyorker.com)
Forty-Three Mexican Students Went Missing. What Really Happened to Them? - One night in 2014, a group of young men from a rural teachers’ college vanished. Since then, their families have fought for justice. (www.newyorker.com)
The Fight Over I.V.F. Is Only Beginning - The fertility treatment has wide support, even among Republican voters, but it is at odds with key elements in the pro-life movement. (www.newyorker.com)
Yet More Donald Trump Cases Head to the Supreme Court - The Court takes up two cases that could do a great deal of damage to one or more of the four criminal cases that the former President faces. (www.newyorker.com)
Helen Oyeyemi Thinks We Should Read More and Stay in Touch Less - The author talks about travel, letters you shouldn’t open, and how she chose Prague as the setting for her latest novel. (www.newyorker.com)
What Joe Biden Must Tell the Israeli Public - Amid the escalating horror in Gaza, the President will have to go around Benjamin Netanyahu to forge a postwar vision for the region. (www.newyorker.com)
UNESCO’s Quest to Save the World’s Intangible Heritage - For decades, the organization has maintained a system that protects everything from Ukrainian borscht to Jamaican reggae. But what does it mean to “safeguard” living culture? (www.newyorker.com)
Visiting Places That No Longer Exist - The artist Ellen Harvey takes a tour of disappeared New York City landmarks that appear in her project “The Disappointed Tourist.” (www.newyorker.com)
Leaving Bellevue Behind - I remember being told that I was not allowed to leave the hospital until I admitted that what I did was “wrong.” (www.newyorker.com)
Why the Primary System Is “Clearly Failing” - Primary contests have so far done little to change the expected Trump-Biden rematch in November, but they have revealed one troubling sign: voter apathy. (www.newyorker.com)
What Biden Is Thinking About the 2024 Election - The staff writer Evan Osnos had a rare, frank talk with the President about his battle for a second term. Plus, Kara Swisher falls out of love with tech in “Burn Book.” (www.newyorker.com)
Greg Jackson Reads Jennifer Egan - The author joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss the story “Safari,” which was published in a 2010 issue of The New Yorker. (www.newyorker.com)
How the Village Voice Met Its Moment - The paper championed a new style of journalism at a time when the persistence of silence and constraint was more plausibly imagined than a world awash in personal truths. (www.newyorker.com)
The Legacy of RuPaul’s “Drag Race” - The drag star brought the form mainstream, and made an empire out of queer expression. Now he fears “the absolute worst.” (www.newyorker.com)
The Scandal of Clarence Thomas’s New Clerk - Crystal Clanton became notorious for sending outlandishly racist texts. Now she’s been hired to work for the Justice—and a dubious new story has surfaced to clear her name. (www.newyorker.com)
With Navalny’s Death, Putin Is Feeling More Confident than Ever - The New Yorker staff writer Masha Gessen reflects on Alexei Navalny’s death and what it says about Putin’s strength. (www.newyorker.com)
A Landmark Look at Family Dysfunction - Richard Billingham’s unvarnished depiction of his parents and brother in the book “Ray’s a Laugh” earned him accusations of sensationalism. But, he says, “I’m a realist.” (www.newyorker.com)
The Politics of the Oscar Race - The Academy Awards often say less about a film’s artistic merits than about the lengthy—and expensive—P.R. campaigns being orchestrated behind the scenes. So why do we care who wins? (www.newyorker.com)
Does the Biden Administration Want a Long-Lasting Ceasefire in Gaza? - More than four months into the war, John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, explains why U.S. support for an extended pause in fighting may not translate to an endorsement of an end of hostilities. (www.newyorker.com)
Michigan’s “Uncommitted” Democrats Send a Message to Biden - The President won the Democratic primary easily, with more than eighty per cent of the vote, but more than a hundred thousand protest voters have made the war in Gaza an issue in his campaign. (www.newyorker.com)
“Dune” and the Delicate Art of Making Fictional Languages - The alien language spoken in Frank Herbert’s novels carries traces of Arabic. Why has that influence been scrubbed from the films? (www.newyorker.com)
The Sterile Spectacle of “Dune: Part Two” - Denis Villeneuve’s sequel is better than its predecessor, but only in a few extravagant moments does it rise above proficiency and flirt with transcendence. (www.newyorker.com)
Thinking About A.I. with Stanisław Lem - The science-fiction writer didn’t live to see ChatGPT, but he foresaw so much of its promise and peril. (www.newyorker.com)
The Increasing Attacks on Kamala Harris - The Vice-President is trying to cast herself as a leader and connect with voters who are not excited about the Democratic ticket. (www.newyorker.com)
How People with Dietary Restrictions See Menus - Vegan options: Mound of celery and carrots (no dip); the garnish parts of the charcuterie board. (www.newyorker.com)
Mourning Flaco, the Owl Who Escaped - The Eurasian eagle-owl lived for a year outside captivity, learning to hunt and travelling widely in Manhattan. “I felt like I lost a friend,” one birder said. (www.newyorker.com)
Two African Migrants’ Fantastical, Harrowing Odyssey in “Io Capitano” - Matteo Garrone’s epic about two young Senegalese cousins attempting to reach Italy is his finest film since “Gomorrah.” (www.newyorker.com)
Can You Really Want an Oscar Too Much? - It’s the ultimate paradox of campaigning: an actor must somehow be dedicated but not try-hard, authentic but not award-hungry. (www.newyorker.com)
The Vatican and the War in Gaza - A rhetorical dispute between the Church and the Israeli government shows the limits—and the possibilities—of the Pope’s role in times of conflict. (www.newyorker.com)
A Professor Claimed to Be Native American. Did She Know She Wasn’t? - Elizabeth Hoover, who has taught at Brown and Berkeley, insists that she made an honest mistake. Her critics say she has been lying for more than a decade. (www.newyorker.com)
Thirty-Thousandths of a League Under the Hudson - Daniel Goswick, Sr., is the diver you call when you lose something in the river: a contact lens, a wedding ring, or a car that mysteriously drove off a pier recently. (www.newyorker.com)
Victoria Tentler-Krylov’s “All Clear” - The artist captures New York’s smallest pedestrians as they make their way through the big city. (www.newyorker.com)
An Opera for the Wrongfully Convicted - The Ohio Innocence Project has freed forty-two people. A couple of them attend a performance of “Blind Injustice,” which tells their stories. (www.newyorker.com)
The Arrested Development of Carson McCullers - She was one of the great writers of American girlhood—possibly because she spent her life being tended to like a child. (www.newyorker.com)
Lord Byron Was More Than Just Byronic - Two centuries after his death, the works of the great Romantic poet reveal a sensibility whose restless meld of humor and melancholy feels thoroughly contemporary. (www.newyorker.com)
The Mail - Letters respond to D. T. Max’s piece on Beatrice Flamini’s cave-dwelling, John Seabrook’s article on Lucian Grainge, and Merve Emre’s essay on Margaret Cavendish. (www.newyorker.com)
In “Shōgun,” an Update Is a Double-Edged Sword - The FX series attempts to tailor its source material—a 1975 novel about an English sailor turned samurai—for modern audiences, but gives them little to seize on emotionally. (www.newyorker.com)
What a Major Solar Storm Could Do to Our Planet - Disturbances on the sun may have the potential to devastate our power grid and communication systems. When the next big storm arrives, will we be prepared for it? (www.newyorker.com)
Ty Cobb on Trump’s Admiration for Putin - The former Trump White House attorney is sounding the alarm on the consequences of ignoring the ex-President’s rhetoric on Russia, and his actions on January 6th. (www.newyorker.com)
The Israeli Settlers Attacking Their Palestinian Neighbors - With the world’s focus on Gaza, settlers have used wartime chaos as cover for violence and dispossession. (www.newyorker.com)
The She-Wolves and Lionesses of Fashion Week - At a runway event for “Queens,” a National Geographic docuseries about female wildlife, bears and elephants (no fur, no leather, no live animals) go strutting. (www.newyorker.com)
Restaurant Review: Velvet Hauteur at Angie Mar’s Le B. - At her new venture in the former Les Trois Chevaux space, the chef returns to her downtown roots, leaning into vivacity and drama. (www.newyorker.com)
Inside North Korea’s Forced-Labor Program in China - Workers sent from the country to Chinese factories describe enduring beatings and sexual abuse, having their wages taken by the state, and being told that if they try to escape they will be “killed without a trace.” (www.newyorker.com)
Russia After Alexei Navalny - Speculative history can be hollow, and a country in need of martyrs and saints is not to be envied, and yet it is hard to overstate the loss of Navalny. (www.newyorker.com)
One of the Last Abortion Doctors in Indiana - Caitlin Bernard is risking her career, and her safety, to care for pregnant patients. (www.newyorker.com)
A Girl’s Coming of Age in the Countryside of Her Childhood - “Solo Apto Para Mí Misma” chronicles adolescence amid the pandemic in the eastern plains of Colombia. (www.newyorker.com)
My Family’s Daily Struggle to Find Food in Gaza - In my homeland, where we used to cook and celebrate together, my relatives are eating animal feed to keep from starving. (www.newyorker.com)
The Humanitarian Catastrophe in Gaza Can Only Get Worse - Trying to project the death toll from Israel’s military campaign over the next six months. (www.newyorker.com)
The Hair Does the Talking - In my youth, when I wore a kufi, what my hair looked like became a source of wonder for the people around me. I took a foolish pleasure in holding on to that kind of power. (www.newyorker.com)
Does Impeachment Mean Anything Anymore? - House Republicans managed to impeach the Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas; meanwhile, their investigation into President Joe Biden is on the verge of collapse. (www.newyorker.com)
Even Before His Trial, the N.R.A.’s Wayne LaPierre Was a Fraud - The pro-gun group’s former leader used the organization’s funds to enrich himself and those close to him. But the deception went much deeper. (www.newyorker.com)
El Paso’s Saint of the Border Negotiates a New Reality - For nearly fifty years, Ruben Garcia has welcomed migrants and refugees at Annunciation House. Amid record border crossings, Texas is now trying to shut down his network of shelters. (www.newyorker.com)
Ty Cobb on Trump, Putin, and Navalny, and Lily Gladstone on Holding the Door Open - According to Cobb, an ex-Trump White House attorney, the former President’s preoccupation with Russia is about jealousy, not conspiracy. Plus, Gladstone talks about making Oscar history. (www.newyorker.com)
The Forced Erotic Whimsy of “Drive-Away Dolls” - The director Ethan Coen, writing the script with his wife, Tricia Cooke, leans on comical violence and genre winks for this road movie of lesbians seeking love. (www.newyorker.com)
Nikki Haley Lost the South Carolina Primary Back When She Was Still Governor - In her home state, Haley came to power as an outsider and never won over the good ol’ boys of the local Republican establishment. Now they’re supporting Trump. (www.newyorker.com)
“About Dry Grasses” Is a Departure for Nuri Bilge Ceylan - The great Turkish director has a thing for misanthropic males, but the protagonist of his latest film encounters a woman who calls out knee-jerk cynicism. (www.newyorker.com)
A Skiing World Cup Comes to the United States - Despite a record-breaking warm winter in Minneapolis, American Nordic skiers come into their own—and hope that their sport can survive. (www.newyorker.com)
Donika Kelly Reads Mary Oliver - The poet joins Kevin Young to read and discuss “One Hundred White-Sided Dolphins on a Summer Day,” by Mary Oliver, and her own poem “Sixteen Center.” (www.newyorker.com)
A Reflective “Sunset Baby” Dawns Off Broadway - Dominique Morisseau revives her 2012 drama about a daughter, part revolutionary, part survivor, whose father devoted his life to the struggle for Black liberation. (www.newyorker.com)
The Weirdest Night in Pop - A new Netflix documentary chronicles the dreamlike recording session for “We Are the World,” the 1985 charity single sung by a motley crew of America’s biggest pop stars. (www.newyorker.com)
My Evening with Flaco the Owl - He asked who I thought was more famous—him or Pizza Rat. I told him that Pizza Rat was probably long dead by now, and Flaco smiled. (www.newyorker.com)
Why Matt Gaetz Keeps Getting Away with It - Dexter Filkins on what motivates the Florida congressman to wreak havoc within his own party. (www.newyorker.com)
“Freedom on My Mind”: A Symphony of Voices for Civil Rights - This 1994 documentary brings the passions and agonies of Mississippi’s voter-registration drive into the present tense. (www.newyorker.com)
Bonus Daily Cartoon: Biden Mail! - “Hold on. I’m searching through all the junk mail Biden sends me to see if he’s forgiven my loans.” (www.newyorker.com)
From House Arrest to the Oscars Circuit - Bobi Wine, the leader of the Ugandan opposition—and the star of a film nominated for Best Documentary Feature—meets Hollywood. (www.newyorker.com)
A Memoirist Who Told Everything and Repented Nothing - Where Diana Athill excelled was at admitting, sans complaint or self-recrimination. (www.newyorker.com)
Daily Cartoon: Wednesday, February 21st - “You better open another bottle of wine—I’m about to start deducting household expenses.” (www.newyorker.com)
A Ukrainian TikTok Influencer Shares Her Life As A Refugee In “Following Valeria” - Nicola Fegg’s short documentary follows a young woman who becomes a social-media star during the war in Ukraine. (www.newyorker.com)
Missing My Dad’s Funeral - At thirteen, I went to sleepaway camp, consumed by crushes, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and my father’s worsening battle with AIDS. (www.newyorker.com)
Cindy Sherman’s Grotesque Digital Creations - In a new series of collages made by hand and with Photoshop, Sherman is as unrecognizable as she’s ever been, but the figures she depicts can’t be easily disentangled from herself. (www.newyorker.com)
Vaclav Smil and the Value of Doubt - A ruthless dissector of unwarranted assumptions takes on environmental catastrophists and techno-optimists. (www.newyorker.com)
A Timeline of Articles About Amelia Earhart Throughout History - 1985: A tourist has found a watch that looks remarkably like one Earhart used to wear. Could it be hers? (www.newyorker.com)
The New Yorker’s Luke Mogelson and Masha Gessen Win Polk Awards - Mogelson received the Magazine Reporting prize for his work in the trenches in Ukraine, and Gessen was honored for their commentary on historical memory and the Israel-Hamas war. (www.newyorker.com)
Returning to the Scene of a Literary Crime - On the site of the old La Côte Basque, Tom Hollander, the star of “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans,” considers to what extent his character was a self-loathing castle creeper. (www.newyorker.com)
Did the Year 2020 Change Us Forever? - The COVID-19 pandemic affected us in millions of ways. But it evades the meanings we want it to bear. (www.newyorker.com)
“On the Night of the Khatam,” by Jamil Jan Kochai - Even those of us who despised Fahim, who refused to forgive his past sins, couldn’t deny the triumph of his resurrection. (www.newyorker.com)
Jamil Jan Kochai Reads “On the Night of the Khatam” - The author reads his story from the February 26, 2024, issue of the magazine. (www.newyorker.com)
Matt Gaetz’s Chaos Agenda - The Florida Republican is among the most brazen and controversial figures in Donald Trump’s G.O.P. He’s also among the most influential. (www.newyorker.com)
Gwyneth v. Skier: You Be the Judge! - Two London playwrights prep for “Gwyneth Goes Skiing,” a comic play about Gwyneth Paltrow’s legal battle with an optometrist over a crash on the slopes in Deer Valley. (www.newyorker.com)
Excerpts from a Posting for My Ideal Job - You thrive in a collaborative environment of constant validation and frequent reminders that no one is mad at you. (www.newyorker.com)
How Noah Kahan Went from Vermont to TikTok to the Grammys - The musician behind the Billboard mainstay “Stick Season” discusses small-town life, using social media too much, and the loneliness of fame. (www.newyorker.com)
A.I. Einstein - Barry Blitt imagines what the Father of Relativity would bring to folding a fitted sheet, or to watching Taylor Swift. (www.newyorker.com)
The Mail - Letters respond to Helen Rosner’s review of Hamburger America and James Wood’s review of Hisham Matar’s novel “My Friends.” (www.newyorker.com)
“Pod Save America” ’s Jon Lovett On Biden’s Accomplishments - The co-host of the popular show explains how the withering of the media and the threat of political violence are warping the Presidential campaign, and what Biden’s team needs to do. (www.newyorker.com)
The Snake with the Emoji-Patterned Skin - In the wild, ball pythons are usually brown and tan. In America, breeding them to produce eye-catching offspring has become a lucrative, frenetic, and—for some—troubling enterprise. (www.newyorker.com)
Marcellus Hall’s “Winter Wonders” - The artist depicts an array of invigorating, comforting, and delightful cold-weather activities. (www.newyorker.com)
In Tommy Orange’s Latest, a Family Tree Grows from Severed Roots - “Wandering Stars” probes the aftermath of atrocity, seeing history and its horrors as heritable. (www.newyorker.com)
Legal Weed in New York Was Going to Be a Revolution. What Happened? - Lawsuits. Unlicensed dispensaries. Corporations pushing to get in. The messy rollout of a law that has tried to deliver social justice with marijuana. (www.newyorker.com)
From Homer to Gaza, the History of Books in Wartime - Nazis burned books; the U.S. shipped them to its troops; Alexander the Great, Hitler, and Stalin were keen bibliophiles. How to make sense of all this? (www.newyorker.com)
The Prodigies of Harmonies - The vocal trio Tiny Habits, whose following includes Gen Z-ers and Elton John, have a hotel-room singing session after a gig with Kacey Musgraves. (www.newyorker.com)
How Joe Biden Could Address the Age Issue - In the battle to assuage anxieties about his fitness for office, the country’s oldest-ever sitting President has a powerful weapon at his disposal. (www.newyorker.com)
What Turned Crossword Constructing Into a Boys’ Club? - For decades, the pursuit was identified with first-wave feminists and bored housewives. How did it come to be defined by a pervasive gender gap? (www.newyorker.com)
The Bartender and the Lost Literary Masterpiece - How a Manchester native rescued “Caliban Shrieks,” Jack Hilton’s working-class opus. (www.newyorker.com)
Trump’s Wild Pursuit of Presidential Immunity - The former President has already lost the immunity case twice, but he has also won something. (www.newyorker.com)
The Trials of Alejandro Mayorkas - The Secretary of Homeland Security has been forced to respond to an unprecedented flow of migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border. Why are Republicans in Congress impeaching him for it? (www.newyorker.com)
All Good Sex Is Body Horror - The work of the director David Cronenberg proposes that transformation can attend disgust and that our desires might be elevated only when we are torn apart. (www.newyorker.com)
Judge Engoron Lowers the Boom on Donald Trump - On Friday, the New York judge ordered the former President and his companies to pay more than three hundred and fifty million dollars in a civil fraud case. (www.newyorker.com)
The Death of Alexey Navalny, Putin’s Most Formidable Opponent - The opposition leader, who died in prison, had been persecuted for years by the Russian state. He remained defiant, and consistently funny, to the very end. (www.newyorker.com)
When A.I. Can Make a Movie, What Does “Video” Even Mean? - Sora, the new text-to-video system from OpenAI, doesn’t make recordings—it renders ideas. (www.newyorker.com)
What Jennifer Lopez Has to Say About Bennifer - Lopez’s new album and accompanying film promise an “odyssey” into her heart, but the love story featured is only coyly, obliquely her own. (www.newyorker.com)
“Pod Save America” ’s Jon Lovett on Trump: “The Threat of Jail Time Sharpens the Mind” - The co-host of the popular podcast explains how the withering of the media and the threat of political violence are warping the Presidential campaign. Plus, the writer Brontez Purnell. (www.newyorker.com)
Restaurant Review: Real-Deal Eccentricity, at Oti - A tiny Romanian-ish restaurant on the Lower East Side is a scrappy operation held together via the chef Elyas Popa’s sheer creative tenacity. (www.newyorker.com)
The Legacy of Beatrix Potter - Also: The film world of Denis Villeneuve, the young pianist Yunchan Lim, Cole Escola’s “Oh, Mary!,” and more. (www.newyorker.com)
The Haunted Juror - In 1987, two innocent teen-agers went to prison for murder. Thirty-seven years later, a juror learned she got it wrong. (www.newyorker.com)
“ ’Round Midnight,” Revisited: A Feast of Music and Acting - The saxophonist Dexter Gordon has the role of a lifetime in Bertrand Tavernier’s 1986 drama of an American jazz icon in Paris. (www.newyorker.com)
Can Ukraine Still Win? - As Congress continues to delay aid and Volodymyr Zelensky replaces his top commander, military experts debate the possible outcomes. (www.newyorker.com)
Jewish Identity with and Without Zionism - New books provide sober histories of the conflicts among Jews over Israel and offer alternate ways forward. (www.newyorker.com)
Two Comic Playwrights Find Dark Humor in Russian Aggression - Sarah Gancher’s “Russian Troll Farm” and Sasha Denisova’s “My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion” look for truth in a world of lies. (www.newyorker.com)
How Usher, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift Build Their Own Legacies - Today’s leading artists are also savvy P.R. professionals who strive to shape their images in real time. Where does that leave the art itself? (www.newyorker.com)