The New Yorker
The Fall of My Teen-Age Self
Zadie Smith recalls the most significant day of her adolescence: “Many interesting things have happened to adult me, but in the opinion of teen-age me there is only one real event in our lives and it occurred on the sixteenth of April, 1993, when I fell thirty feet from my bedroom window.”
The Lede
Reporting and analysis on the affairs of the day.
Elon Musk’s Poisoned Platform
Users and advertisers are fleeing X after Musk’s message supporting an antisemitic conspiracy theory. But the platform seems destined to die a slow death.
The Next Power Plant Is on the Roof and in the Basement
A Department of Energy report promotes a new system that could remake the energy grid.
Biden and Xi’s Blunt Talk
Nobody should expect diplomacy between the U.S. and China to return to the performative, if misleading, good cheer of a generation ago.
Joyce Carol Oates’s Relentless, Prolific Search for a Self
In more than a hundred works of fiction, Oates has investigated the question of personality—while doubting that she actually has one.
All the Newspapers’ Men
In Martin Baron’s “Collision of Power” and Adam Nagourney’s “The Times,” two well-known journalists turn their investigative power on their institutions—and themselves.
The Israel-Hamas War
How Qatar Became the World’s Go-To Hostage Negotiator
The Gulf state is trying to help Hamas and Israel come to a deal. How did it become one of the world’s most prominent hostage-situation mediators?
The Trauma of Gaza’s Doctors
The head of mission for Doctors Without Borders in Palestine on the horrors of practicing medicine under siege.
Escalating Violence Between Israel and Lebanon
There’s a sense of history repeating itself along the border, where tens of thousands have been displaced and the civilian death toll is climbing.
The Use of Children, Hostages, and the Vulnerable in War
The war in Gaza has the feel of history sliding backward.
How Gaza and the British Right Split London on Armistice Day
Duelling protests, a country divided over Israel and Palestine, and the return of David Cameron.
The Surprising Sweetness of the Ayn Rand Fangirl Novel
Lexi Freiman’s “The Book of Ayn” paints an obsession with the godmother of libertarianism as a useful but transient phase.
Comment
Opinions, arguments, and reflections on the news.
John Woo Returns to Hollywood
The Hong Kong filmmaker talks about his quest to make personal genre movies, his enduring faith in friendship, and his new, dialogue-free revenge drama, “Silent Night.”
Thanksgiving Reads & Recipes
The Open Secret of Thanksgiving, and a Recipe
Whether the feast is transcendent or mediocre, whether you are fond of your dinner companions or can’t stand them, the day is defined by something else.
Win Thanksgiving (and Post-Thanksgiving) with Double Stock
A true double stock is a culinary showpiece, an investment of time and ingredients that is worthy of its own spotlight.
A Mother’s Grief in New Haven
Laquvia Jones lost both of her sons to shootings. Now she wonders why a city with a deep sense of community—and one of the wealthiest universities in the world—can’t figure out how to address gun violence.
The Critics
The Droll Capitalist Parable of Cabbage Patch Kids
A new documentary, “Billion Dollar Babies,” shows how a product of Appalachian folk art drew the blueprint for all holiday toy crazes to come.
“Saltburn” Is a “Brideshead” for the Incel Age
Emerald Fennell’s class satire is diabolically clever, but there is a void at its center.
PinkPantheress Is a Hopeless Romantic
On her new album, “Heaven Knows,” the songstress displays a yearning quality that’s surprisingly difficult to locate in today’s pop world.
On “Higher,” Chris Stapleton Makes His Case for Love
The country star’s album is concerned almost exclusively with affairs of the heart—but his gritty voice never sounds sentimental.
“Maestro” Is a Leonard Bernstein Bio-Pic as Restless as Its Subject
Bradley Cooper stars in his own film about the conductor-composer, but it is Carey Mulligan, as Bernstein’s wife, who walks away with the movie.
The Search for Faith, in Three Plays
In “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea,” “Scene Partners,” and “Waiting for Godot,” characters seeking redemption skirt the fringes of belief and delusion.
A Food-Themed Holiday Gift Guide
Kitchen tools, culinary trinkets, tinned treats, dinner-party fixings, and many more curios for the person of appetites in your life.
Annals of Artificial Intelligence
The Godfather of A.I. Fears What He’s Built
Geoffrey Hinton has spent a lifetime teaching computers to learn. Now he worries that artificial brains are better than ours.
A Coder Considers the Waning Days of the Craft
Coding has always felt to me like an endlessly deep and rich domain. Now I find myself wanting to write a eulogy for it.
Does A.I. Lead Police to Ignore Contradictory Evidence?
Too often, a facial-recognition search represents virtually the entirety of a police investigation.
What the Doomsayers Get Wrong About Deepfakes
Experts have warned that realistic A.I.-generated videos might wreak havoc through deception. What’s happened is troubling in a different way.
Bravo in the Flesh
More than a hundred and sixty reality stars descended on Las Vegas, for BravoCon, where they were pulled apart by their harshest critics, who also happen to be their most diehard fans.
What if Nostalgia Isn’t What It Used to Be?
As our faith in the future plummets and the present blends with the past, we doomscroll and catastrophize and feel certain that we’ve reached the point where history has fallen apart.
Puzzles & Games
Take a break and play.
Name Drop: Make Me Laugh
Can you guess the identities of these nine comedy legends?
Listen to The New Yorker
The Kingpin Who Kidnapped Migrants for Ransom
Bayard Rustin Gets to Shine in Our Era
Can Happiness Be Taught?
A Trans Teen in an Anti-Trans State
When I was alone in the house, I often opened the box to stare at the opal.Continue reading »
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