The New Yorker
The Other Side of the River
Millions of Palestinians live in Jordan, where rage about the suffering in Gaza has reached a boiling point. Can the country’s leaders, who have a long-standing peace agreement with Israel, keep things under control? Rania Abouzeid reports from Amman.
Above the Fold
Essential reading for today.
An Israeli Newspaper Presents Truths Readers May Prefer to Avoid
Haaretz consistently attempts to wrestle with the realities of what is going on in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank.
Stormy Daniels’s American Dream
Donald Trump’s lawyers tried to portray the adult-film actress as a lying profiteer. Instead, she emerged as a credible witness who is also very good at making money.
Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and Our Moment of Bad Reading
The once-upon-a-time defense of the poetics of rap has been ceded to the millennial mind of Genius.com, taking every syllable as ripe for mundane exegesis.
Amy Herzog Wants You to Enter Into the Strangeness of Caregiving
The playwright on the new production of her play “Mary Jane,” which stars Rachel McAdams as the mother of a two-year-old born with serious medical conditions.
When we got to her house, she came at me.Continue reading »
Mother’s Day Reading
Late Motherhood, Premature Baby
As I tried to become a parent in my late forties, I thought that getting pregnant would be the hard part. An early delivery never occurred to me.
The Unmothered
Three and a half years after she died, I now mark Mother’s Day on my private calendar of grief.
Swimming with My Daughters
It was so reasonable—why couldn’t we want different things? Two could go into the water and one could stay on the shore. But I didn’t want to leave her there.
The Critics
Nellie Bowles’s Failed Provocations
In “Morning After the Revolution,” the former New York Times reporter sets out to uncover a not-so-forbidden truth—that the left can be somewhat goofy.
How Hindsight Distorts Our View of the Beatles in “Let It Be”
Usually seen as a document of the band’s breakup, the documentary, newly restored by Peter Jackson, is just as much a record of freewheeling inspiration.
The Beautiful Rawness of Steve Albini
The producer was uncompromising in his opposition to the commercialization of music. That might seem today like a Gen X relic—or it might seem kind of awesome.
Looking at Art with Peter Schjeldahl
Recalling a friendship with The New Yorker’s late art critic.
Claire Messud’s New Novel Maps the Search for a Home That Never Was
“This Strange Eventful History” traces three generations of an itinerant French family with roots in colonial Algeria.
Our Collective Obsession with True Crime
Today’s audiences have a seemingly insatiable appetite for stories about people who do—or experience—terrible things. Is there a right way to turn real-life tragedy into mass entertainment?
What We’re Reading This Week
A detailed history of humanity’s prehistoric roots; a thoughtful study of four of Shakespeare’s female contemporaries; a novel that follows a family of globe-trotters and interlopers searching for perfect love; and more.
Goings On
Recommendations from our writers on what to read, eat, watch, listen to, and more.
Summer in the City
Our culture writers and editors share the upcoming season’s performances and happenings—many al fresco—that they’re most looking forward to.
“I Saw the TV Glow” Is a Profound Vision of the Trans Experience
Richard Brody reviews Jane Schoenbrun’s new feature, in which two teens search for their true selves through their shared obsession with a horror TV series.
A Martini Tour of New York City
Martinis often appear in art as symbols of joy and closure. Gary Shteyngart dedicates himself to the cult of the cocktail, in a month of vermouth-rinsing and fat-washing.
Blanca Is Not Fancy Dining 101
Helen Rosner visits the reopened tasting counter—at an offshoot of Roberta’s in Bushwick—where the menu is aesthetically and philosophically rather thrilling, and arguably incredibly cool.
Miranda July Turns the Lights On
A few years ago, July began writing a novel, “All Fours,” about how middle age changes sex, marriage, and ambition. Then the novel changed her.
Ideas
The Secret Society Chasing Our Fading Attention
As ads and apps reduce our ability to focus, an order purportedly reaching back centuries seeks to reset the world by understanding what happens between a person and a work of art.
The Hidden-Pregnancy Experiment
An attempt to hide personal news from online ad trackers makes clear how much surveillance we are engaged in, as both subjects and objects, and how insidious the problem is becoming.
Is Hunterbrook Media a News Outlet or a Hedge Fund?
The hybrid media-finance company wants to monetize investigative journalism in the public interest. Is it a visionary game changer or a cynical ploy?
A TikTok Ban Won’t Fix Social Media
You can take the platform away from American users, but it is far too late to contain the habits that it has unleashed.
The Workingman and the Company Store
Can a progressive campaign break the coal industry’s hold on West Virginia politics?
Dept. of Hoopla
A selection of Mother’s Day funnies.
Can Suing People for Lying Save Democracy?
The lawyers at Protect Democracy have brought defamation suits against Rudy Giuliani, Kari Lake, and Project Veritas, hoping to limit the spread of disinformation. Others worry that their efforts could impinge on freedom of speech.
The Peculiar Delights of the Enormous Cicada Emergence
As loud as leaf blowers, as miraculous as math, the insects are set to overtake the landscape.
Puzzles & Games
Take a break and play.
In Case You Missed It
Selected Stories
The Talk of the Town
Shouts & Murmurs
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