The New York Times

How Weight-Loss Drugs Can Upend a Marriage

Doctors warn about their physical side effects, but they can also have unexpected effects on intimacy.

When Dynamite Turned Terrorism Into an Everyday Threat

In early 20th-century America, political bombings became a constant menace — but then helped give rise to law enforcement as we know it.

The Road to 1948

How the decisions that led to the founding of Israel left the region in a state of eternal conflict.

The 'Colorblindness' Trap

The fall of affirmative action is part of a 50-year campaign to roll back racial progress.

Podcasters Took Up Her Sister’s Murder Investigation. Then They Turned on Her.

‘True crime’ has become a big business — and an emotional minefield for victims’ families.

From the Six-Day War to the Six-Front War

Threats to Israel are multipronged, including Iran and its proxies but also narratives from Western progressives and social media, Palestinians in the occupied territories and internal divisions.

How Hip-Hop Conquered the World

We’re celebrating hip-hop’s 50th anniversary this week. Wesley Morris traces the art form from its South Bronx origins to all-encompassing triumph.

What Was Twitter, Anyway?

Whether the platform is dying or not, it’s time to reckon with how exactly it broke our brains.

Beyond Catastrophe

There's plenty of bad news. But thanks to real progress, we're headed toward a less apocalyptic future.

A.I. Is Mastering Language. Should We Trust What It Says?

OpenAI’s GPT-3 and other neural nets can now write original prose with mind-boggling fluency — a development that could have profound implications for the future.

I Didn’t Want It to Be True, but the Medium Really Is the Message

How we look matters as much as what we see.

Baseball’s Only Mud Supplier

Jim Bintliff collects the Delaware River mud that is smeared on Major League baseballs to make them less slippery. But that tradition is in jeopardy.

How Humanity Gave Itself an Extra Life

Between 1920 and 2020, the average human life span doubled. How did we do it? Science mattered — but so did activism.

11 Years After Trying to Kill Each Other, a Marine and a Talib Meet Again

A Times reporter who once served in the Marines returned to the site of a major battle in Afghanistan to see what’s changed since the Taliban took over — and to meet a commander he once fought.

My Mustache, My Self

A quarantine facial-hair experiment led me to a deep consideration of my Blackness.

The Teenagers at the End of the World

Young climate activists like Jamie Margolin are building a movement while growing up — planning mass protests from childhood bedrooms and during school.

The Diet Industrial Complex Will Never Let Me Go

I did not see the body positivity movement coming, not at all.

What Really Brought Down the Boeing 737 Max?

Malfunctions caused two deadly crashes. But an industry that puts unprepared pilots in the cockpit is just as guilty.

How Rupert Murdoch’s Empire of Influence Remade the World

Murdoch and his children have toppled governments on two continents and destabilized the most important democracy on Earth. What do they want?

America Wasn’t a Democracy, Until Black Americans Made It One

Our founding ideals of liberty and equality were false when they were written. For generations, black Americans have fought to make them true.