The New Yorker
Can Sam Altman Be Trusted with the Future?
The C.E.O. of OpenAI helped usher artificial intelligence into public life. Now, as fears and fortunes mount, his own transformation is just beginning, Benjamin Wallace-Wells writes.
Today’s Mix
Who Gets to Be an American?
Since the earliest days of the Republic, American citizenship has been contested, subject to the anti-democratic impulses of racism, suspicion, and paranoia.
The Stakes of the Birthright-Citizenship Case
The Trump Administration is trying to use the case to stop lower-court judges from issuing “nationwide injunctions” against its unconstitutional executive orders.
Does the United States Need an Official Language?
Donald Trump’s executive order succeeds where decades of right-wing efforts have failed.
Colum McCann’s Limp Novel of Digital Life
In “Twist,” the characterization is listless and the internet is just a series of tubes.
This Is Your Priest on Drugs
Dozens of religious leaders experienced magic mushrooms in a university study. Many are now evangelists for psychedelics.
The Lede
A daily column on what you need to know.
Building Drones—for the Children?
The influential venture capitalist Katherine Boyle is making the case that creating things for America—from weapons to rockets to nuclear-energy plants—is pro-family.
The Mideast Is Donald Trump’s Safe Place
On the “free” airplane from Qatar, and an American President with a self-interested foreign policy a sheikh could admire.
Donald Trump’s Culture of Corruption
How right-wing populism fights graft at the bottom and nurtures it at the top.
Kanye Gave Twitter an Exclusive Hit Single
Spotify and YouTube barred the song, which salutes Hitler, from their platforms. It found its audience, anyway.
Justice David Souter Was the Antithesis of the Present
His jurisprudence has been overshadowed by that of his showier colleagues but was a model of principled restraint.
The Israeli Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Gaza
As Netanyahu rallies troops for an expanded offensive, some reservists are resisting the call.
Kenny Smith Isn’t Going Fishing Yet
The co-host of “Inside the NBA” discusses the show’s move to ESPN, the antics of his co-star Charles Barkley, and their role in popularizing meme culture.
The Critics
Pavement Inspires a Strange, Loving Bio-Pic
The band was willfully ironic and averse to canonization. An aggressively heady new movie it inspired, “Pavements,” thumbs its nose at the epic rock bio-pic.
“Overcompensating” Is a New Kind of Coming-Out Comedy
Benito Skinner’s Prime Video series about a closeted jock starts off as a satire of toxic masculinity—and lands somewhere surprisingly sweet.
The Everyday Dramas of Manhattan Rush Hour
In 1998, Matthew Salacuse took hundreds of pictures of New York commuters. Then he forgot about them for more than twenty years.
When a Writer Takes to the Stage
A one-man show, a box of old stories, and the strange intimacy of talking to a room full of strangers.
In “Jetty,” a Grand Infrastructure Project Becomes Both Visually and Politically Compelling
Bringing an aesthetic eye to the work of securing a shoreline devastated by Hurricane Sandy, Sam Fleischner’s film highlights the beauty of social responsibility and civic trust.
On “I’m the Problem,” Morgan Wallen Goes Back to God’s Country
The country singer presents himself like some guy you ran into at Home Depot. But he may be the most commercially successful musician of his era.
The Best Books We Read This Week
A story collection that explores the otherworldly and the nature of belonging; a riveting history on a top-secret government report that turned out to be a hoax; a love letter to birds and the solace they can provide; and more.
Our Columnists
What’s Really Startling About the Bill Belichick Affair
Belichick always kept tight control of his dealings and a considerable distance from the press. Then he began dating a much younger woman named Jordon Hudson.
“The Encampments” and the American College Student
In a new documentary about the pro-Palestine demonstrations on Columbia’s campus, students are in an existential battle of both exploiting and shedding their protagonist status.
The Real Audience for Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Spectacles
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A plan to deport people to countries that aren’t their home is cruel, performative politics—whether it works or not.
How Donald Trump’s Crypto Dealings Push the Bounds of Corruption
With the meme coin $TRUMP and the company World Liberty Financial, the President is using an underregulated industry to enrich himself and court foreign influence.
Why I Can’t Quit the New York Post
The city’s least self-conscious, Rupert Murdoch-owned daily newspaper sticks to its story, new information be damned, yet holds real clout in liberal New York.
Ideas
The President Who Became a Prophet
For many of Donald Trump’s followers, his appeal has an almost mystical dimension. What happens when the spell breaks?
Marriage According to Dolly Parton
The death of Parton’s husband, in March, called rare attention to a steadfast union that the fame-friendly country star had kept private for decades.
In Defense of Despair
The feeling is most commonly framed as an end point, a level of despondency that cannot be overcome. But it doesn’t have to be so.
Is Asylum Still Possible?
A young democracy activist fled Venezuela, where the government threatened to arrest her for treason. Now in ICE custody, she knows that she may be quickly deported.
Joe Biden’s Decline: The Coverup and the Story Behind It
The reporters Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson describe how the failure to acknowledge the President’s reduced cognitive powers pushed the country toward Donald Trump.
If the Mets Are No Longer Underdogs, Are They Still the Mets?
New York’s other baseball team has the league’s richest owner and just poached one of the game’s best hitters from the Yankees. They may never be the same.
New York: A Centenary Issue
The Battling Memoirs of The New Yorker
A host of accounts by the magazine’s staffers covers a full century of its history, but the trove of recollection is fraught and jumbled.
My New York City Tour of Tours
Things I learned by embedding with the tourists: the Ramones loved Yoo-hoo, Peter Stuyvesant was uptight, and how to do “a quick Donald Trump dance.”
Why Can’t New York City Have a Nice Mayor?
As Donald Trump encroaches on the city, Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams try to salvage their political careers.
Pity the Barefoot Pigeon
Bumblefoot, string-foot, and falcons are just a few of the hazards that New York’s birds have to brave.
Circling the Block
New York drivers waste two hundred million hours a year looking for a place to park. Why can’t anybody find a spot?
Why I Broke Up with New York
Most people accept the city’s chaos as a toll for an expansive life. It took me several decades to realize that I could go my own way.
Tight Quarters
In Queens, the newest arrivals crowd together in apartments often owned by earlier waves of immigrants, in a shadow world that is becoming even more precarious.
Backstage at the Fund-Raiser
Last summer, Barack Obama, George Clooney, and others were stunned by Biden’s weakness and confusion. Why did he and his advisers decide to conceal his condition and campaign for reëlection—and throw the race to Trump?
Puzzles & Games
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