The New Yorker
In Search of Lost Flavors in Flushing
Although Manhattan’s Chinatown is the O.G., Flushing is now home to more than twice the number of immigrants from China. In Queens, Jiayang Fan rediscovers the tastes of her childhood.
Above the Fold
Essential reading for today.
What Harvey Weinstein’s Overturned Conviction Means for Donald Trump’s Trial
The legal issue behind Weinstein’s successful appeal is also at the heart of the former President’s hush-money case.
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?
What George Kelly’s Mistrial Says About How We See the Border
The Arizona rancher was accused of killing a migrant. A tragedy, and a possible murder, quickly became a political cause.
Donald Trump Is Being Ritually Humiliated in Court
At his criminal trial, the ex-President has to sit there while potential jurors, prosecutors, the judge, witnesses, and even his own lawyers talk about him as a defective, impossible person.
The Food Issue
New items on the menu throughout the week.
The Political Scene
The Biden Administration’s Plan to Make American Homes More Efficient
New building codes from the Department of Housing and Urban Development are the latest addition to a long list of Earth Week environmental wins for the White House.
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, and a man self-immolated outside, it has been challenging to find twelve people willing to sit in the jury box.
The G.O.P.’s Election-Integrity Trap
Trump has spent years arguing that mail-in voting is fraudulent and corrupt. Now the Republican National Committee, which sees mail-in voting as essential, must persuade his base to embrace it.
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.
Padma Lakshmi Walks Into a Bar
Since leaving “Top Chef,” Lakshmi has found herself in a period of professional uncertainty. What better time to try standup comedy?
Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers Tell Their Stories
A New York appeals court has overturned the former movie mogul’s 2020 rape conviction. In 2017, Ronan Farrow revealed numerous allegations against Weinstein.
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.
“Civil War” Is a Tale of Bad News
Alex Garland’s grim political fantasy about secession and violence revolves around a war photographer but has little to say about the making and consumption of news images.
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.
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.
American Confinement in “We Grown Now” and “Stress Positions”
A crisis turns home into a place of constraint in two new independent features.
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.
From the Food Issue
Mastering the Art of Making a Cookbook
Working with Julia Child and a host of author-chefs, the editor Judith Jones transformed American kitchens.
Why You Can’t Get a Restaurant Reservation
How bots, mercenaries, and table scalpers have turned the restaurant reservation system inside out.
Why We Choose Not to Eat
Can the decision to forgo food be removed from the gendered realm of weight-loss culture?
The Most Treasured Jar in My Pantry
There is nothing “plain” about vanilla when your extract is home-brewed.
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.
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?
People may fervently espouse symbolic beliefs, cognitive scientists say, but they don’t treat them the same as factual beliefs. It’s worth keeping track of the difference.
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.
“Sparring Partner”
In J. J. Kandel’s short film, the lunch-break banter of a flirtatious pair of co-workers, played by Cecily Strong and KeiLyn Durrel Jones, gives way to uncomfortable revelations.
.jpg)
The “Epic Row” Over a New Epoch
Scientists, journalists, and artists often say that we live in the Anthropocene, a new age in which humans shape the Earth. Why do some leading geologists reject the term?
Puzzles & Games
Take a break and play.
In Case You Missed It
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 »
The Talk of the Town
Daily Cartoon
