New from The New Yorker Radio Hour: Chance the Rapper’s art and activism, and the perils of prison reform.
The Force Is Still Strong with John Williams
At the age of eighty-eight, the self-effacing composer reflects on his extraordinary career.
How a Star Professor Built a Distance-Learning Empire
David Malan, of the hit class CS50, was working to perfect online teaching long before the pandemic. Is his method a model for the future of higher education?
Note to Congress: Don’t Leave the Unemployed Behind
Republican legislators seem intent on slashing unemployment-insurance payments to tens of millions of American workers who lost their jobs through no fault of their own.
What Could Happen if Donald Trump Rejects Electoral Defeat?
A new book lays out three catastrophic scenarios.
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Spotlight
Until Black Women Are Free, None of Us Will Be Free
Barbara Smith and the Black feminist visionaries of the Combahee River Collective.
The Allure of the Nap Dress, the Look of Gussied-Up Oblivion
It is not a nightgown, or a caftan, or a housedress. It offers the twin promise of beauty and sleep.
How Munich Turned Its COVID-19 Outbreak Into a Scientific Study
Researchers at Ludwig-Maximilians University devised a system for widespread antibody testing and contact tracing that has helped the city stem the virus’s spread.
From 1967: Columbia’s Apology to Langston Hughes
Seven months after the death of the Black writer, Professor James P. Shenton acknowledged at a memorial, “For a while, there lived a poet down the street from Columbia, and Columbia never took the time to find out what he was about.�
From 2017: The Civil-Rights Luminary You’ve Never Heard Of
Pauli Murray was an architect of the civil-rights struggle—and the women’s movement. Why haven’t you heard of her?
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Red Lobster Is Not Essential
A son’s attempt to persuade his mother to stop working as a waitress during the coronavirus pandemic.
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Join Me in My Blissful Seven-Day Yoga Challenge for Unsettling Times
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From This Week’s Issue
Eye-Catching Art for an Unprecedented Summer, in “Monuments Now�
The outdoor exhibition at Socrates Sculpture Park includes Jeffrey Gibson’s kaleidoscopic ziggurat “Because Once You Enter My House, It Becomes Our House,� performances by indigenous American artists, and more.
From 2013: The Desires of Margaret Fuller
The writer had a dazzling intelligence and was once the best-read woman in America, but a public hungry for transgressive heroines has failed to embrace her.
From 2020: Remembering Lorena Borjas, the Mother of a Trans Latinx Community
Borjas, who died in March, of complications from COVID-19, left behind a community of transgender women and countless L.G.B.T.-rights activists who looked to her for guidance, inspiration, and love.
From 1948: “The Lottery�
“The people had done it so many times that they only half listened to the directions; most of them were quiet, wetting their lips, not looking around.�
Video
Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle Perform Songs from Their Upcoming Albums
The singer-songwriters Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle speak with Amanda Petrusich about making art during quarantine and global protest movements.