CATEGORIES

THE SPACE BETWEEN

\"Janet Planet.\" The first time we meet Janet in \"Janet Planet,\" a wondrous début feature from the celebrated playwright Annie Baker, she is standing on a rural road a little way from the camera.

LABOR PAINS

Lucy Kirkwood's \"The Welkin\" assesses women's work.

OFFLINE

Lizzy McAlpine on the power and pitfalls of viral fame.

HEAT RISING

The era of the line cook.

UNSHATTERED

How the philosopher Charles Taylor would reënchant the world.

THE PLAGUE DOCTOR

Anthony Fauci on what's ailing America.

the buggy RODDY DOYLE

There were people at the far end of the beach. Some adults, a lot of children.

GHOSTS ON THE WATER

Glass eels are mysterious creatures—and worth a fortune to those who catch them.

SMALL WONDER

How will nanomachines change our lives?

MIDDLE-AGE FANTASIES

You are seated on the examination table when the nurse enters. She’s tall and raven-haired, with enormous blue eyes and candy-red lips. She says hello with a husky Eastern European accent, which reminds you of a recent episode of “The Daily” about Polish elections.

GREAT MIGRATIONS

\"Home\" and \"What Became of Us.\"

SICK, SAD WORLD

What COVID did to fiction.

MOVE IN FOR THE CULL

The complicated calculus of killing some wild creatures to protect others.

CHICAGO ON THE SEINE CAMILLE BORDAS

I used to tell myself stories on the job, to make it feel exciting—spy stories, exfiltration stories, war stories. I used to come up with poignant little details that turned the repatriation cases I worked on into “Saving Private Ryan,” into “Johnny Got His Gun.”

A SEMBLANCE OF PEACE

How life in a co-living community changed after October 7th.

SCREEN GRAB

How CoComelon conquered children's television.

FOND OF FLAGS

My wife is fond of fast food. I am not. My wife is particularly fond of the Wendy’s Baconator. I argue that it’s less expensive to order a Dave’s Double with a side of bacon, then put your own pretzels on top. (I’m fond of the Rold Gold Tiny Twists Original.)

TROPHY ROOM

Going on safari.

INSIDE JOB-"Hit Man"

Years before Hannah Arendt coined, in the pages of this magazine, the phrase \"the banality of evil,\" popular films and fiction were embodying that idea in the character of the hit man. In classic crime movies such as \"This Gun for Hire\" (1942) and \"Murder by Contract\" (1958), hit men figure much as Nazis do in political movies, as symbols of abstract evil.

WHATEVER YOU SAY

Rereading Jenny Holzer, at the Guggenheim.

SUBCONSCIOUSLY YOURS

Does every generation get the Freud it deserves?

BY A WHISKER

Louis Wain and the reinvention of the cat.

Beyond Imagining

Bessie, Lotte, Ruth, Farah, and Bridget, who had been lunching together for half a century, joined in later years by Ilka, Hope, and, occasionally, Lucinella, had agreed without the need for discussion that they were not going to pass, pass away, and under no circumstances on.

STATES OF PLAY

Can advocates use state supreme courts to preserve-and perhaps expand-constitutional rights?

THE LONG RIDE

The surf legend Jock Sutherland's unlikely life.

ARE WE DOOMED?

A course at the University of Chicago thinks it through.

RED LINE

With the election approaching, the U.S. and Mexico wrangle over border policy.

Age of Anxiety

The love songs of Billie Eilish.

A Reporter at Large – You Make Me Sick

How corporate scientists discovered—and then helped to conceal—the dangers of forever chemicals.

OLD ENGLISH

“Player Kings,”\"The Cherry Orchard,” and \"London Tide.”