The New Yorker
Is “Love Is Blind” a Toxic Workplace?
Reality-TV contestants work brutally long days, are barely paid, and endure experiences that can feel like abuse. Former cast members of Netflix’s megahit are speaking out—and calling for solidarity. Emily Nussbaum reports on reality TV’s labor reckoning.
Above the Fold
Essential reading for today.
Donald Trump’s Abortion Problem at the Polls
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, G.O.P. efforts to ban abortion have backfired with voters in many states—and they could do so again in November.
The Kafkaesque Journey of the Oakland A’s
As the team’s current owner tries to move the franchise to Las Vegas, its situation has become hopeless and absurd.
Donald Trump and Michael Cohen Deserve Each Other
At the former President’s hush-money trial, Trump’s ex-lawyer is using his old boss’s playbook to help the prosecution.
The Two-Pronged Attack on a Muslim Judicial Nominee
How the smearing of Adeel Mangi became a bipartisan exercise.
What George Miller Has Learned in Forty-five Years of Making “Mad Max” Movies
In a series of conversations, the director of “Furiosa” explains why silent films have the best action, audiences are seldom wrong, and his wife is always right.
The Political Scene
The Fantasy of a 2024 Election Game Changer
With a general-election debate and the ex-President’s criminal verdict looming, can anything move the immovable American electorate?
It’s a Climate Election Now
Trump’s reported billion-dollar offer to fossil-fuel executives shows that this is the key year to save the planet.
Stormy Daniels’s American Dream
Donald Trump’s lawyers tried to portray the scrappy adult-film actress as a lying profiteer. Instead, she emerged as an intelligent, credible witness who is also very good at making money.
The Biden Administration’s Have-It-Both-Ways Report on Gaza
A new assessment, produced by the State Department, found that Israel has likely violated international law—though it doesn’t find a reason to cut off military aid.
How to Live Forever
The simplest, most foolproof way to extend life is to do so backward, by adding years in reverse.
The Critics
Are Breasts Passé?
Breasts are subject to capricious restrictions and contradictory norms. What would it take to set them free?
The Anxious Love Songs of Billie Eilish
Much of the artist’s new album, “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” is about wanting a relationship but failing, in some fundamental way, to sustain closeness with another person.
Garth Risk Hallberg Takes On the Life-and-Times Novel
The author’s last project was determined to capture the social fabric of an era; in his latest, he shrinks his frame.
The Madly Captivating Urban Sprawl of Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis”
After a thirteen-year absence, a great American director returns with an ambitious vision of a city—and a world—in need of renewal.
Jerrod Carmichael Finds the Outer Limits of Confessional Comedy
Through an uncanny hybrid of access journalism and fourth-wall breaking, the comedian created an HBO series that was impossible to look away from.
The Chilling Truth Pictured in “Here There Are Blueberries”
Moisés Kaufman’s play dramatizes the discovery of a photo album of Nazis at leisure at Auschwitz, and the reckoning it provoked.
What We’re Reading This Week
A novel of earth-shaking attraction and the crises of middle age; a history of female pianists and the cost of pursuing art; a convivial exploration of dog-show culture; and more.
Did She Do It?
Lucy Letby, a British nurse, was found guilty of killing seven babies. Colleagues reportedly called her an “angel of death,” and the Prime Minister condemned her. But, in the rush to judgment, serious questions about the evidence were ignored.
Ideas
Who Wins and Who Loses When We Share a Meme
Two new books by art-world authors explore online shareability and come to different conclusions about what creators stand to gain.
Class Consciousness for Billionaires
We used to think the rich had a social function. What are they good for now?
Blurring the Line Between Money and Media
Hunterbrook, a hybrid media-finance company, wants to monetize investigative journalism in the public interest. Is it a visionary game changer or a cynical ploy?
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.
The Precarious Future of Big Sur’s Highway 1
How climate change is threatening one of the country’s most famous roadways.
The View from Palestinian America
Six months into the war in Gaza, the quiet act of documenting life is a kind of protest against erasure.
Puzzles & Games
Take a break and play.
Losing the “Right to Hug”
Hundreds of counties around the country have ended in-person jail visits, replacing them with video calls and earning a cut of the profits.
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