American Madness

Thousands of people with severe mental illness have been failed by a dysfunctional system. My friend Michael was one of them. Twenty-five years ago, he killed the person he loved most.

The New Anarchy

America faces a type of extremist violence it does not know how to stop.

The Age in Your Head

I'm 53 years old. I feel 36.

How to Look at a Vermeer

The artist left behind few clues about his life or intentions, but the paintings themselves teach the viewer new ways to see.

The Poet Facing Down the End of the World

Jorie Graham has a message for us

The Pornography Paradox

Reformers fear that ever more outré sites are warping users' desires. But transgression has always been part of the appeal.

How Taylor Swift Infiltrated Dude Rock

On the unlikeliest, most fruitful collaboration in contemporary music

The MAGIC KINGDOM of RON DESANTIS

My very British romp through America's weirdest state

IS HOLOCAUST EDUCATION MAKING ANTI-SEMITISM WORSE?

Using dead Jews as symbols isn't helping living ones.

The Ice-Cream Conspiracy

STUDIES SHOW A MYSTERIOUS HEALTH BENEFIT TO ICE CREAM. SCIENTISTS DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT.

America's Future is at Sea

The nation is ceding the seas to its enemies. It's not too late to avoid catastrophe.

"Two of Every Race"

A family's impossible quest to erase prejudice through transracial adoption

"We Belong Here"

In 1991, the family landed at a refugee camp in Saudi Arabia. There, Al-Badry got his first camera, a Pentax K1000.

We're Already in the Metaverse

Reality is blurred. Boredom is intolerable. And everything is entertainment.

A New Way to Read Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald never explicitly states Jay Gatsby's race.

Second Life

During Donnie's first week in the mixed unit (drugs and crazy), a girl threw a TV set out the window because she thought it was criticizing her. Donnie walked to the window to look. \"Probably was,\" he mumbled.

Love Annihilated

The Irish writer Sebastian Barry's great subject

The Scandalous, Clueless, Irresistible Oscars

How the Academy holds on to its prestige despite a history of embarrassment

We're All Invited to the Lighthouse

On the Isle of Skye with Virginia Woolf and my mom

In Their Feelings

The indelible, indomitable voices of Miley Cyrus and Lana Del Rey

Judy Blume Goes All the Way

A new generation discovers the poet laureate of puberty.

Arnold's Last Act

What happens when the Terminator turns 75

The French Are in a Panic Over Le Wokisme

The nation's vehement rejection of identity politics made me recalibrate my own views about woke ideology.

The Third Law of Magic

He spent the night making snow. He packed it tightly into balls of different sizes and stored them in the freezer to keep them stable.

The Masterpiece No One Wanted to Save

Censored and then forgotten, Anatoly Kuznetsov's Babi Yar, about the Nazi occupation of Kyiv, is again painfully relevant.

Did George Washington Burn New York?

Americans disparaged the British as arsonists. But the rebels fought with fire too.

The Miraculous Salman Rushdie

His enchanting new novel is a triumph.

Struck on One Side

Society tells me to celebrate my disability. What if I don't want to?

IS AMERICA READY FOR A NEW AGE OF NUCLEAR POWER?

THERE'S NO WAY TO MITIGATE CLIMATE CHANGE WITHOUT IT.

The Short King's

A maverick group of short sellers uses covert techniques to uncover fraud for profit. Now they're under investigation themselves. Are they the heroes of Wall Street, or the villains?