A weekly magazine covering journalism, commentary, criticism, and fiction.
Trending
Why Animals Don’t Get Lost
Birds do it. Bees do it. Learning about the astounding navigational feats of wild creatures can teach us a lot about where we’re going, Kathryn Schulz writes.
Amy Davidson Sorkin on why, although Senator Rand Paul, who engineered the hearing, may have come at the matter with theatrics and ill will, Dr. Anthony Fauci’s decision to take the Fifth Amendment, rather than testify, was a loss.
Human-rights groups estimate that more than ten thousand Ukrainian civilians have disappeared into the Russian prison system. This is the story of one cell. Joshua Yaffa reports.
Studies have linked them to obesity, diabetes, depression, and even dementia. Dhruv Khullar reports on a revolution in nutrition science that aims to fix America’s deadly diet.
Tatiana Schlossberg on Being Diagnosed with Leukemia After Giving Birth
The daughter of Caroline Kennedy writes about receiving a terminal diagnosis following the birth of her daughter, and watching Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., cut funding for the health-care system she relies on.
The Nuns Trying to Save the Women on Texas’s Death Row
Sisters from a convent outside Waco have repeatedly visited the prisoners—and even made them affiliates of their order. The story of a powerful spiritual alliance. Lawrence Wright reports.
After Zac Brettler mysteriously fell to his death in the Thames, his parents, Matthew and Rachelle, discovered that he’d been posing as an oligarch’s son, including in dealings with Akbar Shamji and Verinder (Dave )Sharma. Patrick Radden Keefe reports on the case’s many complexities, including an oddly curtailed police investigation.
How a Homegrown Teen Gang Punctured the Image of an Upscale Community
The authorities didn’t seem to pay attention to the Gilbert Goons until one boy was dead and seven others were charged with murder, Rachel Monroe writes.
Kanye West Bought an Architectural Treasure—Then Gave It a Violent Remix
After the rapper purchased a concrete beach house in Malibu, designed by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando, he hired Tony Saxon to demolish parts of the structure, guided by Bianca Censori. Ian Parker reports.
Why So Many People Are Going “No Contact” with Their Parents
Anna Russell on a growing movement to destigmatize going “no contact” with one’s relatives. Is it a much-needed corrective, or a worrisome change in family relations?
Ina Garten Talks About Her Life, Her Marriage, and Her New Memoir
With her new memoir, “Be Ready When the Luck Happens,” the star of the Food Network’s “Barefoot Contessa” and “Be My Guest” looks back on her troubled childhood, her East Hampton store, her collaboration with Martha Stewart, and her marriage to Jeffrey.
A Professor Claimed to Be Native American. Did She Know She Wasn’t?
Jay Caspian Kang reports on Elizabeth Hoover, a so-called Pretendian who has taught at Brown and Berkeley and who insists that she made an honest mistake. Her critics says she has been lying for more than a decade.
Brooke Jarvis considers the history behind the search for sea level, as described in a new book by Wilko Graf von Hardenberg, and probes what it tells us about science, global warming, and life on our changeable planet.
How 3M Discovered, Then Concealed, the Dangers of Forever Chemicals
3M found that many of its products, including Scotchgard and Scotchban, leached toxic chemicals called PFAS. Sharon Lerner reports on why the company kept making them.
Kathryn Schulz reports on severe solar storms, which may have the potential to upend many technologies essential to our daily lives, from G.P.S. and the power grid to communications satellites and FEMA emergency-response systems.
Why We’re Turning Psychiatric Labels Into Identities
Manvir Singh reviews “But Everyone Feels This Way: How an Autism Diagnosis Saved My Life,” by Paige Layle; “Sociopath: A Memoir,” by Patric Gagne; and “Borderline: The Biography of a Personality Disorder,” by Alexander Kriss.
