The New Yorker
No Reservations
Bots, mercenaries, and table scalpers have turned the restaurant reservation system inside out. Adam Iscoe reports on why you can’t get a table.
Above the Fold
Essential reading for today.
Who’s Afraid of Judging Donald Trump? Lots of People
At the ex-President’s criminal trial, where Trump has been reprimanded for intimidating a potential juror, it has been challenging to find twelve people willing to sit in the jury box.
The War Games of Israel and Iran
While Netanyahu and the Islamic Republic exchange ballistic “messages,” the question of Palestine demands the moral and strategic courage of actual statesmen.
When a Pro-Free-Speech Dean Shuts Down a Student Protest
An online argument erupted after a video of a law professor grabbing a microphone from a student went viral. But the debate has obscured some fairly basic truths.
The Baltimore Oriole Who Swings the Bat Like a Legend-to-Be
Jackson Holliday has had perfect swinging form since he was three years old. As a major leaguer, though, he’s still in his infancy.
The Food Issue
New items on the menu throughout the week.
When Babies Rule the Dinner Table
In the past two decades, American parents have started to ditch the purées and give babies more choice—and more power—at mealtime.
The Political Scene
Did Mike Johnson Just Get Religion on Ukraine?
The Speaker’s sudden willingness to bring foreign-aid bills to the House floor risks his Speakership—and Trump’s wrath.
Will Biden’s Pro-Labor Feats Matter in November?
The President is winning over union leaders, but not necessarily rank-and-file voters.
The Supreme Court Asks What Enron Has to Do with January 6th and Trump
The former President notwithstanding, the government’s position in Fischer v. United States is unsettling.
Will Historic Job Growth Bring an End to the “Vibecession”?
The Labor Department’s March employment report shows the U.S. economy continuing to power ahead. Yet many voters’ perceptions remain stubbornly negative.
East Palestine, After the Crash
More than a year after a train derailment and chemical fire in Ohio that made international news, residents contend with lingering sickness, uncertainty, and, for some, a desire to just move on.
Fifteen Essential Cookbooks
The kitchen guides that New Yorker writers and editors can’t do without.
The Critics
The Tortured Poetry of Taylor Swift’s New Album
“The Tortured Poets Department” has moments of tenderness. But it suffers from being too long and too familiar.
How to Both-Sides a “Civil War”
In his new film, Alex Garland seems to be using our dire politics as buzzy I.P. while tap-dancing around conversations that might get him in trouble.
In Justine Kurland’s Photographs, a Mother and Son Hit the Road
Some of the portraits in “This Train” have an Edenic quality to them, as if Kurland is asking: What if my kid and I were the only two people in the world?
How Stories About Human-Robot Relationships Push Our Buttons
Two new novels, “Annie Bot” and “Loneliness & Company,” reflect anxieties about A.I. coming for our hearts as well as for our jobs.
Ralph Fiennes Sidles His Way Into Power as Macbeth
A hit British production of Shakespeare’s ever-timely tragedy arrives in D.C.
The Poet Who Took It Personally
Delmore Schwartz tried to change poetry, often by putting his own painful life on the page. The cost was that failure felt all the more acute.
What We’re Reading This Week
A collection of piquant essays on our predilection for minimalism; a striking début novel that touches on the welfare system; a memoir that charts the investigation of a mother’s murder across a quarter century; and more.
Ideas
How to Die in Good Health
The average American celebrates just one healthy birthday after the age of sixty-five. Maybe it doesn’t have to be this way.
How Gullible Are You?
Don’t believe what they’re telling you about misinformation. People may espouse symbolic beliefs, but they don’t treat them the same as factual beliefs.
Get Real
Video-game engines were designed to mimic the mechanics of the real world. How perfectly can reality be simulated?
What Is Noise?
Sometimes we embrace it, sometimes we hate it—and everything depends on who is making it.
What Happened to Earth Day?
The first Earth Day, on April 22nd, 1970, was a loosely organized teach-in. In 2013, in the wake of a failed attempt to pass major climate-change legislation, Nicholas Lemann surveyed decades of environmental activism and wrote about where the movement had gone wrong.
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Jonathan Haidt Wants You to Take Away Your Kid’s Phone
The social psychologist discusses the “great rewiring” of children’s brains, why social-media companies are to blame, and how to reverse course.
Puzzles & Games
Take a break and play.
In Case You Missed It
The Comedy and Monstrosity of “Lolita”
Vladimir Nabokov was born a hundred and twenty-five years ago today. In 1958, Donald Malcolm reviewed the author’s new novel, in which Nabokov had “prodded one of the few remaining raw nerves of the twentieth century.” Though other critics evaluated the novel’s morality, Malcolm focussed on its irony, and on Nabokov’s ability to create a feeling of complicity in his readers, and a work of the highest art.
The Talk of the Town
That they were “not young,” though described by observers as “amazingly youthful,” must have been a strong component of their attraction to each other.Continue reading »
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