Dispatches: America Without God

As religious faith has declined, ideological intensity has risen. Will the quest for secular redemption through politics doom the American idea?

Looking Up

When you are an ant, the stakes are always high. There are those who would eat you—birds, snakes, bigger bugs—and those who could trample you and your environment in a single sneakered step. These enormous beings may not mean you any harm, but it is impact, not intention, that matters most.

Private Schools Are Indefensible

The Gulf between how rich kids and poor kids are educated in America is obscene.

The Relentless Philip Roth

In his life as in his fiction, the author pursued the shameful, the libidinous, the repellent.

Bring Back The Nervous Breakdown

It used to be okay to admit that the world had simply become too much.

Noisy, Ugly, and Addictive

Hyper pop could become the countercultural sound of the 2020s.

A Forgotten Founder

Prince Hall was a free african american in Boston at a time of revolutionary fervor— and a transformative figure whose story deserves to be reinserted into the tale of America's creation.

The Second Career of Martellus Bennett

The former NFL tight end writes the kind of children’s books he would have loved as a kid.

The Committee on Life and Death

As COVID-19 has overwhelmed hospitals, the lack of clear bioethical guidelines has meant that doctors have had to make wrenching life-and-death decisions on the fly. The result has been chaos and unnecessary suffering, among both patients and clinicians. As the country prepares to distribute vaccines, we’re at risk of reprising this chaos.

The Covid-19 Manhattan Project

Never have so many researchers trained their minds on a single problem in so brief a time. Science will never be the same.

Jeans Now, Pay Later

Are the new online services that allow you to buy just about anything in installments—interest-free—too good to be true?

China's Rebel Historians

Defiant researchers chronicle a past that the Communist Party grows ever more intent on erasing.

School Wasn't So Great Before Covid, Either

Yes, remote schooling has been a misery—but it’s offering a rare chance to rethink early education entirely.

THE HISTORIAN WHO SEES THE FUTURE

PETER TURCHIN BELIEVES HE HAS DISCOVERED IRON LAWS THAT DICTATE THE RISE AND FALL OF CIVILIZATIONS. HE PREDICTS A DIRE DECADE FOR THE UNITED STATES.

Death Of A Small Business

“I’m more than just my store,” my father told me. And yet, for nearly his entire adult life, all of his decisions had argued the opposite.

The Many Lives of Adrienne Rich

Praised by W. H. Auden as neat and modest, she vowed to be passionate and radical instead.

The Bible Without Miracles

Thomas Jefferson preferred Jesus’s teachings to his supernatural acts—and edited his copy of the New Testament accordingly.

Last Exit

Donald Trump’s first term was characterized by theft, lies, corruption, and the incitement of violence. A second term could spell the end of American democracy.

Why We're Afraid of Bats

On how we know—and how we learn— what to fear

Fluffing Your Own Nest

Can happiness be found in home improvement?

Why British Police Shows Are Better

When you take away guns and shootings, you have more time to explore grief, guilt, and the psychological complexity of crime.

The WeWork Guy's Guide to Striking It Rich

Adam Neumann may be out of a job, but his wild rise is standard operating procedure in Silicon Valley.

STILL FALLING FOR IT

In 1957, Elia Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd warned America that a populist demagogue could use mass media to accumulate dangerous quantities of power.

OH, IT WAS NOTHING

Why Kamala Harris is caught between self-effacement and self-assertion

Nicola Gratteri – MOB Justice

An Italian prosecutor takes on his country’s most powerful crime syndicate.

Claudia Rankine's Quest for Racial Dialogue

Is her focus on the personal out of step with the racial politics of our moment?

Ever Thought About Breaking Free, Abandoning Your Responsabilities, Running Away From Your Life?

Toby Dorr's Great Escape

What Is MasterClass Actually Selling?

The Ads are everywhere: You can learn to serve like Serena Williams, write like Margaret Atwood, act like Natalie Portman. But what MasterClass really delivers is something altoguether different.

The Mythology Of Racial Progress

Believing that things are always getting better actually makes them worse.

Lying as an Art Form

Elena Ferrante’s new novel about adolescence explores the power of fictions.