CATEGORIES
Who Were the 2010s?
As the decade began, there were reasons to be optimistic: America had elected its first black president, and the world hadn’t cascaded into total financial collapse. Obamacare, for all its flaws, was passed, and then came the Iran deal and the Paris climate accords. Sure, there were danger signs: the anger of the tea party, the slow hollowing out of legacy news media, a troubling sense that somehow the bankers got away with it. But then maybe the immediacy of social media gave some hope, at least if you listened to the chatter of the bright young kids in the Bay Area trying to build a new kind of unmediated citizenship. Maybe everyday celebrity, post-gatekeeper, would change the world for the better. Some of that happened. But we also ended up with the alt-right and Donald Trump, inequality, impeachment, and debilitating fomo. How did we get here? Throughout the past weeks, we had long talks over multiple sessions with six people who helped shape the decade—and were shaped by it—to hear what they’ve learned.
Laura Dern Doesn't Need Our Approval
But we gave her an honorary degree anyway.
Margaret Atwood – The Handmaid's Tale arrived
The Handmaid’s Tale arrived.
Kim Kardashian West
Reality TV altered reality.
Following The President's Orders
Gordon Sondland is an equal-opportunity flunky.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Race defined the decade.
Kevin Systrom
Instagram became the world’s filter.
Jonah Peretti
BuzzFeed made the world a meme.
DeRay Mckesson
Black Lives Matter started a revolution—and a counterrevolution.
The cultural pages – Critics
Are You There, God? It's Me, Kanye.Jesus Is King swerves between consecration and commodification
Ocean of Longing
French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop’s Cannes sensation Atlantics is a migrant-ghost story for our time.
Knives Out Will Kill You
Cracking the mystery of why Rian Johnson followed up Star Wars with a whodunit.
Still Here
Gerald DeCock has lived in his defiantly bohemian studio at the Chelsea Hotel for 25 years.
The National Interest: Jonathan Chait
The White House's Godfather Fantasy If the Trumps are the Corleones, that makes us the marks.
The Zombie Campaign
JOE BIDEN IS THE LEAST FORMIDABLE FRONT-RUNNER EVER. WILL IT MATTER?
Don't Call Her Quirky
In The Crown, Helena Bonham Carter plays Princess Margaret in her tabloid-hounded middle age. Some of it seems familiar.
What's Left of Condé Nast
It held on to its glossy illusions longer than most magazine companies. But now, two years after Si Newhouse died (and Graydon Carter left), Anna Wintour and a new CEO from San Francisco, Roger Lynch, are mapping out a future they can afford.
Chelsea, Lately
The former First Daughter is, at 39, trying to figure out what her own life looks like.
Learning To Eat Like A Food Critic
LIKE CRUISE-SHIP CAPTAINS and candy-makers, restaurant critics are often told they have the best job in the world, even if the darker side of the daily grind—the health issues, the struggles with finding a thousand different words for “delicious,” the Groundhog Day sense of monotony as one familiar baked-salmon entrée succeeds the next—makes many things about the job less glamorous than they seem.
The World After the Whistle-Blower
An accounting of the early days of impeachment.
Among the Witches
"It’s hard to be worried when you don’t really like the guy.”
Peloton, Spinning Faster Than Ever
Peloton accidentally built a fitness cult. A business is a little more complicated.
One Night at Mount Sinai
Aja Newman went to the emergency room for shoulder pain. Her doctor was a superstar. What ’s the worst that could happen?
What Would You Do With An Extra $500 A Month?
A financial experiment in three true stories.
Her Game
Nancy Pelosi has not had a simple job since the Democrats won back the House last year, having to, most prominently, swat away an ill-fated attempt to replace her as Speaker, navigate uncharted political waters with the emergence of the progressive “Squad,” and try to negotiate with Donald Trump.
Was It Worth It? - Is It Still? Will It Ever Be?
Those who came forward about sexual assault and harassment tell about everything that followed.
96 Minutes with … Carson Daly
The unlikely late-night host’s survival guide.
Bong Joon-Ho Vs Late-Stage Capitalism
The Korean director’s ferocious new film, Parasite, is a parable of our money-hungry world. It’s also the most fun you’ll have in theaters this fall.
On The Waterfront Burger Front
Everything about Red Hook Tavern is an homage to the past, including its signature dish.
The Shaw Family Admission Plan
One Wall Street billionaire and the ultimate college hedge.