The New Yorker
On Native Grounds
The Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, faces the cruel history of the agency she now leads. As the first Native American Cabinet member, she has made it part of her job to address the travesties of the past. Casey Cep reports.
Above the Fold
Essential reading for today.
The Revenge of the Home Page
As social networks become less reliable distributors of the news, consumers of digital journalism are seeking out an older form of online real estate.
Elliott Abrams and the Contradictions of U.S. Human-Rights Policy
The longtime State Department official and Iran-Contra player on Israel’s war in Gaza and his own record in Latin America.
The Surprising Rise of Latin American Evangelical Missionaries
A new book looks at a clandestine movement to proselytize in Muslim countries.
Why Normal Music Reviews No Longer Make Sense for Taylor Swift
Critics argue that “The Tortured Poets Department” sounds too much like Swift’s previous albums. Fans argue that that’s the whole point.
The Battle for Attention
Technology hounds us. Life is quicker and more scattered than before. How do we hold on to what matters in a distracted age?
Work Sucks. What Could Salvage It?
New books examine the place of work in our lives—and how people throughout history have tried to change it.
The Political Scene
Trump’s Sleepy, Sleazy Criminal Trial
In the former President’s hush-money trial, for the first time in a decade, he is struggling to command attention.
The Supreme Court Appears Poised to Protect Trump
In arguments about Presidential immunity, the conservative Justices made clear their interest in shielding former Presidents.
Joe Biden and the Politics of Home Efficiency
Congressional Republicans say efficiency requirements are threats to liberty, but the Biden Administration’s new building codes are the latest in a long list of environmental wins.
What Harvey Weinstein’s Overturned Conviction Means for Trump
The legal issue behind Weinstein’s successful appeal is also at the heart of the former President’s hush-money case.
How ECMO Is Redefining Death
A medical technology can keep people alive when they otherwise would have died. Where will it lead?
Academic Freedom Under Fire
Politicians despise it. Administrators aren’t defending it. But it made our universities great—and we’ll miss it when it’s gone.
The Food Issue
Why You Can’t Get a Restaurant Reservation
How bots, mercenaries, and table scalpers have turned the restaurant reservation system inside out.
Spoiler Alert: Leftovers for Dinner
How to host a dinner party for nine using a pre-trash haul from Too Good to Go and other food-waste apps. Carb-averse guests, beware.
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.
Are We Living Through a Bagel Renaissance?
A new wave of shops has made its mark across the country—and shaken New York’s bagel scene out of complacency.
How Columbia’s Campus Was Torn Apart Over Gaza
The university asked the N.Y.P.D. to arrest pro-Palestine student protesters. Was it a necessary step to protect Jewish students, or a dangerous encroachment on academic freedom?
Paul Auster: “Why Write?”
The acclaimed writer and New York icon has died, at the age of seventy-seven. In 1995, he reflected on his life and craft.
The Critics
Love Means Nothing in Tennis but Everything in “Challengers”
Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist sustain a three-way rally of romance in Luca Guadagnino’s almost absurdly sexy sports film.
Helen Vendler’s Generous Mind
The professor and critic will be remembered for her brilliant books, but teaching brought her genius to the fore.
An Acclaimed D.J. Who Is Ready to Sing Again
The Welsh artist Elkka made her name with buoyant dance music. Now she’s reintroducing her voice.
Joanna Arnow’s Deceptively Plain Masterpiece
“The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed” mines the comic potential of distance and framing, in an examination of degradations large and small.
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.
Could “Mind the Game” Change the Way Sports Are Covered?
The podcast, co-hosted by J. J. Redick and LeBron James, combines analytical commentary with an insider’s perspective—and bypasses traditional media.
What We’re Reading This Week
A retelling of Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from the perspective of Jim, a collection of piquant essays on our predilection for minimalism, a memoir that charts the investigation of a mother’s murder across a quarter century, and more.
Secret Ingredients
The Most Treasured Jar in My Pantry
There is nothing “plain” about vanilla when your extract is home-brewed.
How to Season Your Food Like the French
I didn’t really know what black pepper was until I lived in Lyon.
The Unexpected Hero of My Baking Repertoire
Cakes that usually come at you two-fisted—pure butter and sugar—begin to relax when you swap some of the usual white-wheat flour for buckwheat.
A Tamarind Tree’s Sweet and Sour Inheritance
My ancestor was gifted a huge orchard just outside Delhi. The fruits it produced were the taste of my childhood.
Exposing Abu Ghraib
Twenty years ago this week, Seymour M. Hersh published a bombshell article about the torture and abuse carried out by American soldiers and contractors at the prison in Iraq. The reporting helped to set off a scandal that reverberated around the world. Some of the perpetrators had documented their own crimes with photos and video. In his 2004 exposé, Hersh named not only the men and women behind the abuse but also the soldier who brought the episode to light.
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.
The “Epic Row” Over a New Epoch
Scientists, journalists, and artists often say that we live in the Anthropocene. Why do some leading geologists reject the term?
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.
The Scholar of Comedy
Jerry Seinfeld on how to write jokes, the ending of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” and the world-historical struggle to invent the Pop-Tart.
Puzzles & Games
Take a break and play.
In Case You Missed It
It’s foul out there, he called, but she wasn’t in the main room.
He saw the signs of water ingress in the planks below the cabin windows. A wet stain that caught the light.Continue reading »
The Talk of the Town
Shouts & Murmurs
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