The New Yorker

The Ill-Defined Plot

The essay is French, but essayists are English. What can it mean?

I Don't Want to Be Right

To change false beliefs, appealing to a person’s sense of self may be more important than the facts.

Partial Recall

Michael Specter on Daniela Schiller, a neuroscientist researching the connection between memory and fear, in an attempt to rewrite traumatic memories.

How to Tell When Someone Is Lying

Over time, the psychologist Paul Ekman has found that one particular characteristic can prove useful in detecting liars.

What We Really Taste When We Drink Wine

Two glasses sit side by side on the table, each filled midway up with red wine. On the bottom of each stem is a white piece of paper. One reads “Wine …

Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy

Mondegreens are funny, of course. They also give us insight into the underlying nature of linguistic processing and how our minds make meaning out of sound.

The Surprising Science of Yawning

Yawning may be the opposite of what we think—not a signal of sleepiness but a signal that it’s time to act.

When It’s Bad to Have Good Choices

Why are people in affluent countries often unhappy and anxious?

The Excrement Experiment

Emily Eakin reports on fecal transplantation, in which a healthy person’s gut microbes are transferred to a sick person’s colon.

Can AIDS Be Cured?

Jerome Groopman reports on a new push to find a cure for AIDS.

Stone Soup

Elizabeth Kolbert on the paleo diet: how did it get so trendy, and what are its environmental costs? Proponents argue that, before the invention of agriculture, people were healthier. But with a global population of seven billion people, there’s no turning back now.

Is Internet Addiction a Real Thing?

As far back as 1997, before the days of ubiquitous smartphones and laptops, psychologists were already testing the “addictive potential” of the Web.

The Limits of Friendship

How does the increased prevalence of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in our lives affect our social circles?

Berlin Nights

Nick Paumgarten travels to Berlin, Germany, to explore night clubs and experience the city’s techno scene.

Final Forms

Kathryn Schulz on the history of death certificates and how they reflect the relationship between humans and the mystery of death.

The Ride of Their Lives

Burkhard Bilger on rodeo kids. Bull riding is the most dangerous organized sport in the world, but the kids at the Camp of Champions can’t wait to compete.

Taken

Sarah Stillman on civil forfeiture, wherein police departments can confiscate money and possessions without charging the owners with a crime.

The Perfect Wife

Ariel Levy writes about Edith Windsor and Thea Spyer, two lesbians whose marriage led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage.

A Most Profound Math Problem

To postulate that P ≠ NP is to allow for a world of mystery, difficulty, and frustration—but also of discovery and inquiry

Thanksgiving in Mongolia

Ariel Levy writes about her pregnancy, her journey to Mongolia, and a personal tragedy.