CATEGORIES
It's Not Complicated - Ta-Nehisi Coates's writing on race fueled a reckoning in America. | Now he wants to change the way we think about Israel and Palestine.
It was mid-august, roughly a month and a half before his new book, The Message, was set to be published, and Ta-Nehisi Coates was in my face, on my level, his eyes wide and aflame and his hands swallowing his scalp as he clutched it in disbelief and wonder and rage. At the Gramercy Park restaurant where we’d met for breakfast, Coates, now 48, looked noticeably older than the fruit-cheeked polemicist whose visage had been everywhere nearly a decade before, when he released Between the World and Me, his era-defining book on race during the Obama presidency, and the stubble of his beard was now frosted with white. But he was possessed still with the conviction and anxiety of a young man: deeply certain that he is right and yet almost desperate to be confirmed. He spoke most of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, a central subject of his book. “I knew it was wrong from day one,” he said. “Day one—you know what I mean?”
Intelligencer - The National Interest: Jonathan Chait - Exploiting Violence Trump blames liberals for the attempts on his life. He doesn't care who gets hurt now.
Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. That was true before the first assassination attempt on the former president, on July 13, and it remains true now, after the second attempt, which was foiled at his golf course on September 15. Political violence in general, and assassinating presidential candidates specifically, also poses risks to democracy. There is no contradiction between these ideas whatsoever. Yet Trump’s supporters have responded to both attempts on his life by muddying the waters, exploiting the near tragedies with cynical efforts to redefine critiques of Trump’s authoritarian inclinations as violent provocation.
Neighborhood News: Aaron Judge Unchained - In this career season, he saw a mini-slowdown in early September. That's over now.
Friday the 13th, and Aaron Judge was in a slump—or rather, what passes for a slump in this epic 2024 season of his. He hadn’t homered in 16 games, his longest dry spell in the majors. The superstitious chatter around the clubhouse held that he’d appeared on a kiddie show in late August and, through some inchoate psychic mechanism, had his mojo sapped. This Friday-night game was the second in a four-game series against the Red Sox, and in the bottom of the seventh inning Boston was up 4-1. After throwing two called balls, the Sox reliever Cam Booser had to get one over, and he did approximately what he’s supposed to do: keep it low and away. It wasn’t low or away enough. Judge dug his bat under and lifted the ball 368 feet, over the Canon ad in left field. Grand slam, Yankees take the lead. Judgemania—mounting all summer, held in tension during two weeks of merely good hitting— exploded yet again. Final score: 5-4.
The Truths and Distortions of Ruby Franke -The Mormon mother of six built a devoted following by broadcasting her family's wholesome life on YouTube. How did she end up abusing her children?
In 2015, Ruby Franke, a 32-year-old Mormon woman in Utah, became another parent sharing her family’s life on YouTube. The first video on her now-defunct channel, 8 Passengers, begins with old footage of her standing in a modest kitchen, her five children gathered around in anticipation as she cuts into a cake to reveal the gender of her sixth child. The video jumps to a scene at the hospital shortly after her new daughter’s birth. Resting in bed, Ruby cradles the baby and her youngest son, a serious-faced 3-year-old boy in blue overalls. “Can you show me where her nose is?” she asks him as he points. “Where’s her eyes?” When an elder son reports that the camera is almost out of battery, Ruby replies softly, “Go ahead, turn it off. That’s okay.”
623 Minutes With ...Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi - The Beverly Hills OB/GYN who delivers Kardashian and Bieber babies.
The Aliabadi formula has become very popular in Los Angeles of late. Aliabadi is big on preventive care. She uses the MyRisk genetic test, a tool that weighs personal and family history to calculate a patient’s risk for hereditary cancers; she listens to her patients carefully for signs of endometriosis and PCOS; and she assesses the ideal time to freeze eggs. Earlier this year, Olivia Munn credited Aliabadi with saving her life when those tests helped catch her breast cancer. When asked in an interview what her favorite thing about L.A. is, Rihanna said simply, “My gynecologist.” Aliabadi sees Olivia Culpo, members of various royal families, and the entire Kardashian-Jenner clan; she advised SZA to remove her dangerous breast implants and delivered Emma Roberts’s baby and, a month ago, Justin and Hailey Bieber’s son, Jack Blues.
A Shiksa Love Story
Erin Foster has spent the past decade turning her Hollywood life into content, to mixed results. Her new Netflix rom-com series, based on her own conversion to Judaism, might change that.
Hot Commodity
In Sally Rooney's novels, love is always being bought, sold, or reduced to tropes. But this is also what makes it real.
900 Lives of Tana Mongeau
Is one of the internet's most infamous chaos agents capable of cleaning up her act?
Soho Will Get a New Artists' Restaurant
Manuela, from the founders of Hauser & Wirth, is equal parts showroom and dining room.
How's the Hyssop?
Cafe Mado is a worthy return to locavore eating.
A Wonk in Full- Ezra Klein, glowed-up and post-coup, was almost a celebrity at the convention.
Ezra Klein, glowed-up and post-coup, was almost a celebrity at the convention. Ezra Klein, who is known to keep his passions in check, did not have the right credentials to get into the arena. The Secret Service didn't recognize the New York Times' star "Opinion" writer and podcaster, but eventually he was able to figure out how to get in to where he belonged. This was, after all, as much his convention as any journalist's, since its high-energy optimism turned on the fact that President Joe Biden was no longer leading the ticket and, starting early this year, Klein had led the coup drumbeat.
The Afterlife of Donald Trump - The presidential hopeful contemplates his campaign, his formidable new opponent, and the miracle of his continued existence.
Donald Trump raised his right hand and grabbed hold of it. He bent it backward and forward. I asked if I could take a closer look. These days, the former president and current triple threat-convicted felon, Republican presidential nominee, and recent survivor of an assassination attempt-comes from a place of yes. He waved me over to where he sat on this August afternoon, in a low-to-the-ground chair upholstered in cream brocade fabric in the grand living room at Mar-a-Lago.
Danzy Senna Can't Stop Thinking in Black and White
Her latest novel holds diminishing returns.
Live, Laugh, Love
Dick jokes meet sentimentality in a wily Sandler-Safdie collab.
Tim Burton Is Great Again
A long-awaited sequel revels in gore and nostalgia.
In the Shack With Robert Caro
The Power Broker is turning 50. The final LBJ book is almostwell, he won't say exactly, but he's trying for 900 words a day.
24 Comedians You Should Know RIGHT NOW
THE COMEDY industry is undergoing a metamorphosis in 2024. Name-brand venues like the Second City and UCB are opening or reopening in New York, beloved local spots are being bought out by megacorporations, and streaming-service-helmed comedy festivals are usurping the old-fashioned ones. Post-WGA strike, TV-development execs are growing green-light-shy, Hulu is entering the stand-up fray, and YouTube specials are becoming just as worthy of watching as Netflix specials, if not more so.
Leading Lady
Anna Sawai could take home the Emmy for her performance in Shogun. But she's keeping her cool.
RESTAURANT REVIEW: Le Même Veau
The Frenchette crew has taken over the 87-year-old restaurant, and the snails are as garlicky and the duck as pink as ever.
DESIGN HUNTING: A LOFT WITH A HIGHER PURPOSE
Ali Richmond, co-founder of the nonprofit Fashion for All Foundation, has lived in this Brooklyn loft for almost 20 years with his archive of designer clothing.
THE DIVORCE TAPES
My family knew that my father had been tapping the phone lines. Only later would I discover the secrets the recordings contained.
The PEOPLE for KAMALA HARRIS
How a women-led movement, born in the devastation of 2016, propelled a woman to the top of the ticket, galvanized her early campaign, and put eaocrats on the brink of making history
Brooding: Kathryn Jezer-Morton
Parent Trap - \"Dorm Room Mamas\" use decorating, and Amazon, to helicopter from afar.
358 MINUTES WITH...Thomas Houseago
The trauma-bedeviled artist, with some help from his Hollywood support bros Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, opens his first show in a decade in New York.
Neighborhood News: Cops Chasing Cops
Federal agents turn their focus toward the NYPD.
Screen Time: John Herrman
The AI-Obsessed Are Driving Themselves Mad In the uncanny valley, even the geeks are getting fooled.
The Escape Artist
PinkPantheress blew up anonymously on TikTok. Now, her Y2K dance-pop influences the masses.
The Parasites of MALIBU
Anthony Flores and Anna Moore met Dr. Mark Sawusch at an ice-cream shop.
THE INVITED
WHEN YOU'RE A VIC-\"VERY IMPORTANT CLIENT\" -LUXURY BRANDS ANYTHING TO KEEP YOU HAPPY (AND SPENDING). WILL DO
LEARNING THE ART OF SEDUCTION FROM THE KING OF HÖRNINESS
There are two things that make women happy,” Usher Raymond IV tells me.