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The New Yorker

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Personal History

My Audience with the Pope

I thought that the e-mailed invitation was spam. “Nice try, Russia,” I said to my laptop screen. But the Pope really did want to meet with comics and humorists.
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Critic’s Notebook

The Mute Spectacle of Bianca Censori

Kanye West’s wife and muse has become known for going out in very—very—little clothing. What does her nudity reveal, and what does it hide?
The Weekend Essay

Why A.I. Isn’t Going to Make Art

To create a novel or a painting, an artist makes choices that are fundamentally alien to artificial intelligence.
Infinite Scroll

“Emily in Paris” in the Late Streaming Era

Over four seasons, the Netflix series has hollowed out along with the streaming industry that spawned it.
Open Questions

What Does It Really Mean to Learn?

A leading computer scientist says it’s “educability,” not intelligence, that matters most.

Books

Books

The Power of Thinking Like a Poker Player

Nate Silver’s “On the Edge” applies the lessons of modern gambling to the arenas of tech startups, artificial intelligence, and ethics.
Books

Briefly Noted

“The Secret Life of the Universe,” “Playing with Reality,” “The Coin,” and “The Divorce.”
Books

The Supreme Contradictions of Simone Weil

It’s a conundrum of the philosopher’s biography that most basic human needs were alien to her.
Books

How Seamus Heaney Wrote His Way Through a War

As his country’s most prominent poet, Heaney struggled to reconcile his vision of poetry with the Troubles tearing the Irish apart.

Movies

The Front Row

The Giddy Delights of “1941”

Steven Spielberg gave free rein to his anarchic inner child in this Second World War comedy—and paid the price.
The Front Row

How Gena Rowlands Redefined the Art of Movie Acting

The actress, who died last week, at the age of ninety-four, changed the history of cinema in her collaborations with the actor and director John Cassavetes.
The Front Row

Jacques Rozier’s Inspired Improvisations

A retrospective of the great director’s rarely screened movies reveals his extraordinary vision of ordinary life.
The Current Cinema

With “Close Your Eyes,” a Legendary Filmmaker Makes a Stunning Return

In his first feature in more than two decades, the Spanish director Víctor Erice tells a story haunted by the ghosts of cinema past.

Food

The Food Scene

A Brooklyn Gas Station with Serious Grub

Inside a BP, Blue Hour offers a greatest-hits album of fast-food favorites made with high-quality ingredients and a considerable amount of care.
On and Off the Menu

Bonnie Slotnick, the Downtown Food-History Savant

In the forty-eight years that she’s lived in the West Village, the owner of the iconic cookbook shop has never ordered delivery.
The Food Scene

Le Veau d’Or Makes a Thrillingly Old-Fashioned Comeback

The restaurateurs behind Frenchette and Le Rock have face-lifted and spit-shined the city’s oldest surviving French restaurant while remaining obsessed with its history. 
The Food Scene

A “Top Chef” Winner Reheats at Il Totano

A buzzy new Italian-ish spot from Harold Dieterle doesn’t seem to know what kind of restaurant it’s trying to be.
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Photo Booth

Teen-Age Alienation, on Display

In the nineteen-eighties, Andrea Modica took photos of the students at her Catholic alma mater. “I recognized something there that I had to deal with about my time in high school—something both horrible and wonderful,” she said.

Television

On Television

The Obamas’ Rousingly Pragmatic Call to Action at the D.N.C.

For better and for worse, the former First Couple are still the best communicators that the Democrats have.
On Television

The Kamala Show

How Vice-President Harris’s public persona has evolved, from tough prosecutor to frozen interviewee to joyful candidate.
On Television

Snoop Dogg and American Attitude at the Paris Olympics

As the 2024 Games come to a close, taking stock of watching Noah Lyles, Nic Fink, Sha’Carri Richardson, and more through NBC’s lens.
On Television

“House of the Dragon” Still Hasn’t Caught Fire

The HBO show’s latest season finale reaffirms Rhaenyra’s right to rule—but her mode of noble restraint, however admirable in a leader, is lethal in a protagonist.

The Theatre

Persons of Interest

Cole Escola’s Great Day on Broadway

With their deranged portrayal of Mary Todd Lincoln, the actor and writer emerges from the “gay shadows” in a hysterical farce.
The Theatre

Politics and “The Real” at the Festival d’Avignon

A series of international productions held power to account at a fraught moment.
The Theatre

“Cats: The Jellicle Ball” Lands on Its Feet

The directors Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch cross Andrew Lloyd Webber’s juggernaut musical with queer ballroom culture to electrifying effect.
The Theatre

Sandra Oh and a Cast of Downtown All-Stars Illuminate a Period Thriller

The British playwright Lucy Kirkwood’s “The Welkin” exorcises the jury-room drama.

Music

Pop Music

MJ Lenderman Keeps It Raw

The artist discusses resisting the neutering effects of technology, his breakup with a bandmate, and his new album, “Manning Fireworks.”
The Political Scene Podcast

How Much Is “Being Cool” Actually Worth in Politics?

The New Yorker staff writer Naomi Fry dissects how Vice-President Harris became a “Kamalanomenon.”
Listening Booth

Sabrina Carpenter’s Funny, Feisty “Short n’ Sweet”

The artist sings with wry, petulant specificity, whether she’s addressing a boyfriend, an ex-boyfriend, or that ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend.
Listening Booth

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings’s New Album Steeped in Longing

On “Woodland,” even tracks ostensibly grounded in a feeling of satisfaction evoke that which has slipped away.

More in Culture

Cover Story

R. Kikuo Johnson’s “A Mother’s Work”

A glimpse into the lives of New York’s caretakers.
Blitt’s Kvetchbook

Musk v. Musk

Elon goes to court to make things right.
Goings On

Usher, the King of R. & B.

Also: The wrenching documentary “Daughters,” the Fourth Wall Ensemble in Green-Wood Cemetery, Lauren Collins on truth and deception.
Annals of Inquiry

Why So Many People Are Going “No Contact” with Their Parents

A growing movement wants to destigmatize severing ties. Is it a much-needed corrective, or a worrisome change in family relations?
Culture Desk

The Plight of the Political Satirist

How Ruben Bolling, of “Tom the Dancing Bug,” finds the humor in a volatile news cycle.
Under Review

The Best Books We’ve Read in 2024 So Far

Our editors and critics review notable new fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
The New Yorker Documentary

“Incident” Shows How Officers React When a Police Killing Is Caught on Tape

A collection of surveillance and body-camera footage offers a raw look at the 2018 shooting of Harith Augustus, and at the immediate attempts to shape the story.