The New Yorker
The Doulas Who Help Us Die
In an aging America, thousands of people have adopted a new vocation: supporting others as they confront the end of life. “It’s not about telling you that you can have a good death,” one doula told Alexandra Schwartz. It’s about reframing what dying can mean.
Today’s Mix
If A.I. Takes the Jobs of Young People, How Will They React?
The Democratic electorate is already moving left, but that may be nothing compared with what happens when unemployment really starts to rise.
An Israeli Satirist’s Bid to Save His Country’s Democracy
Lior Schleien used to host hit TV shows. Now he posts videos of discussions with young people, the majority of whom currently tend right, which garner millions of views.
The Great Delegalization
More than a million immigrants are seeing protections that granted them safe lives in the U.S. suddenly swept away.
What Does the Humbling of Leopold Aschenbrenner Mean for the A.I. Bubble?
The troubles of a twenty-four-year-old hedge-fund manager highlight some larger questions about the tech-driven stock boom.
The Delusions of John Roberts
The Chief Justice insists that his Supreme Court isn’t biased even as it keeps making dramatic leaps rightward.
The Lede
A daily column on what you need to know.
A.I. Is Now a Major Election Issue
As Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s newly elected Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, put it, “People really effing hate data centers.”
The Senate’s Shameful Acquiescence to Todd Blanche as Attorney General
A number of Republicans resisted his confirmation, but enough ultimately accepted the notion that Trump could do even worse.
Are Psychedelics Right-Wing Now?
How the conservative activist Bryan Hubbard, with help from Rick Perry and Joe Rogan, persuaded Trump and the G.O.P. to embrace ibogaine, a psychedelic drug derived from an African shrub.
Max Miller’s Victim Mentality
The Republican congressman’s bitter domestic dispute—in which he’s accused of physical abuse by his ex-wife, the daughter of an Ohio senator—is testing his party’s willingness to defend the indefensible.
The Electability of Abdul El-Sayed
The former public-health official won Michigan’s Democratic primary with an unapologetically progressive platform—and a total defiance of the Party establishment.
What Does It Even Mean to Be a Moderate?
.jpg)
The Michigan Senate primary has turned into a referendum on a word that has never had a fixed meaning.
How Golden Is Silence, Actually?
Pythagoras made his students stay silent for five years before allowing them to speak. Thackeray was so unnerved by Charlotte Brontë’s silence that he fled a party he had thrown for her. A secret history of shutting up.
The Critics
Could “Fast” Be, at Long Last, Rob Tregenza’s Breakout Film?
A young auto racer brings speed and passion to small-town life in an unsung American auteur’s latest work.
The Pyrrhic Victories of “House of the Dragon”
Season 3 of the “Game of Thrones” prequel ends with yet more bloodshed—and less of the charm that’s made Westeros worth visiting.
“Tony,” “Late Fame,” and the Rocky Road to Literary Stardom
The protagonists of two films, an Anthony Bourdain bio-pic and a drama about a neglected poet, find themselves struggling with their writerly destinies.
G.P.S. and the Lost Art of Getting Lost
A new book, “Little Blue Dot,” by Katherine Dunn, raises questions about the unintended consequences of knowing where we are.
Ryan Murphy’s Sanded-Down Version of “The Shards”
The director’s adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s metafictional thriller-slash-gay-awakening story is a “Glee”-ified version of its source material.
How Jordan Harper Reinvented Noir for the Epstein Era
This year’s buzzy “A Violent Masterpiece” inverts the genre’s traditional contrast between optimism and despair. Is a hopeful crime novel still a noir?
What We’re Reading
A biography of the singer and civil-rights activist Harry Belafonte, who died in 2023; an agile, unsettling novel that follows the body horror of birth to the fairy-tale horror of early motherhood; and more.
Our Columnists
Did the Dodgers Ruin Baseball?
Already the title favorites, Los Angeles acquired the league’s best pitcher at the trade deadline—and may have insured a lockout after the season.
Ariana Grande and the Disappointment of Diagnosis
The pop star’s appearance has prompted fans to speculate that she’s suffering from an eating disorder. How should we talk about famous women’s bodies?
The Godmother of the “Conspiracy Mom”
Sixty years ago, a J.F.K.-assassination buff in Oklahoma provided a preview of a contemporary archetype.
Stella Lefty and the Rise of Nepo-Baby Musicians and “Industry Plants”
.jpg)
There’s a story we tell ourselves on social media any time a child of money or fame vaults into public life.
How Caro Claire Burke Wrote the Biggest Book of the Year
The début novelist behind “Yesteryear” on researching trad wives, wading into the discourse, and Anne Hathaway’s plans to adapt her best-seller for the screen.
Flash Fiction
A series of very short stories.
“Tributaries”
He heard her crying out in the dark. He couldn’t be sure if it was in sadness or joy or both.
“The Window”
Yes, pulling the shade was my nightly task, and she’d never think to do it, but already I was half an hour away from home.
“Broken”
Usually, when I informed a guy that I had a type, that I couldn’t help whom I was or wasn’t attracted to, he moved on. Not you.
.jpeg)
Can Extreme Morning Sickness Be Cured?
For decades, the condition was thought to be psychological, and women were shamed for their illness. Now a scientist has found a biological cause.
Songs of Summer
A series on music and memory.
“Padam Padam”
Kylie Minogue’s 2023 track belongs to a category of solid, danceable pop music that barely penetrates the eardrums of self-professed thirtysomething old folks.
“It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere”
This 2003 song by Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett was part of a wave of hits that envisioned an escape to the seaside.
“Hold On”
In 1990, Wilson Phillips, three daughters of rock royalty, released a song so wholesome and unguarded that it could disarm even the angstiest teen.
My Birthright
When you immigrate, certain bands of cultural experience go dark. Is that why I can’t stop writing about where I’m from?
Ideas
What Would It Mean to See a New Color?
Olo can be described as the “greenest green,” though it can never be captured by a camera. But its development tells us a lot about our color vision.
Sometimes It’s O.K. to Let a Language Die
When cultural preservationists cast every extinction as murder, they can ignore speakers’ decisions—and the costs of keeping a fading tongue alive.
The Myth of the Food Desert
Policymakers have assumed that people with good options wouldn’t make bad choices. What if access was never the real problem?
Should We Do More to Fight Lookism?
Discrimination against the unattractive is widespread—and widely tolerated.
The Future, Made in China
Beijing is competing with the U.S. for tech supremacy. Who wins will have huge political implications.
The Mentor
Roy Cohn helped send Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to the electric chair and played a key role in driving the Red Scare of the forties and fifties. Decades later, he took Donald Trump, then an outer-borough striver, under his wing and taught him everything he knew—how to ignore the rules, avoid a paper trail, and make up a good story for the media.
Puzzles & Games
Take a break and play.
The Man Who Was Kidnapped Twice
Thousands of people in Nigeria have been held for ransom by bandit groups. One professor escaped his captors—only to be abducted again.
In Case You Missed It
And here was a town house, five stories high. The car idled in front. David looked out the window of the back seat, up at the stone façade. There was a guard, installed on the front steps, and a rash of flags mounted over the door, as if it were an embassy. The façade was lighted from below by the exterior lights that specified the building, separated it from the other night buildings. It was the flags that threw him.Continue reading »
